Mitsubishi secures first European Doppler lidar installation at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has been awarded a contract by Météo-France, the national meteorological service for France, to supply a Terminal Doppler Lidar system (Diabrezza A Series) for use at Nice Côte d’Azur Airport, the country’s second-busiest international airport. The installation will be Mitsubishi Electric’s first Terminal Doppler Lidar in Europe, although the company aims to expand its weather radar and lidar business in global markets to produce sales of ¥2.5bn (US$23m) by March 2021. To maximize the prevention of aircraft accidents due to wind shear, detection is required under all conditions, not just during precipitation, which is why the integration of radar and lidar is especially crucial for large-scale airports. Mitsubishi’s Terminal Doppler Lidar transmits laser beams and then detects light backscattered by dust and other particles in the air, which enables the system to measure line-of-sight windspeed using the Doppler frequency shift of the backscattered light. Mitsubishi Electric has developed a planar waveguide amplifier that extends the line-of-sight windspeed observation range to more than 20km (12.4 miles) and complies with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards. Mitsubishi Electric currently has five Terminal Doppler Lidar systems operating at Tokyo and Narita airports in Japan, as well as at Hong Kong airport in China. Another two are scheduled to be delivered to Beijing Daxing China, and Antalya, Turkey, international airports in 2018, prior to the delivery to Nice Côte d’Azur Airport.