Method and device for detecting air turbulence in the environment of an aircraft

1. A method for detecting air turbulence in the environment of an aircraft, wherein, in the course of a flight of the aircraft, the following series of successive steps is carried out in an automatic and iterative manner;

A/at any instant ti:

a) measuring, with a measuring device, the current values at said instant ti of the static temperature and of the static pressure, as well as the current values of auxiliary parameters tied to the flight of the aircraft on board the aircraft;

b) calculating a potential temperature θi on the basis of said current values of the static temperature and of the static pressure;

c) determining characteristics of the wind;

d) determining on the basis of said characteristics of the wind and of said potential temperature θi, an extrapolated height hiE corresponding to the height attained by an isentropic trajectory of potential temperature θi, at a subsequent instant ti+1 such that ti+1=ti+Δt, Δt being a predetermined time interval; and

B/at the instant ti+1:

e) determining the current height hi+1 of the aircraft at this instant ti+1;

f) calculating a theoretical height δi+1 corresponding to the difference between said extrapolated height hiE and said current height hi+1;

g) comparing this theoretical height with a height threshold; and

h) emitting, if said theoretical height is below said height threshold, an alert signal signaling the detection of turbulence, wherein:

in step A/d), the following operation is carried out: extrapolating, with the aid of the current height hi of the aircraft at the instant ti and of the local slope of the wind obtained on the basis of said wind characteristics determined in step A/c), a theoretical profile followed by the isentropic trajectory of potential temperature θi; and

the extrapolated height hiE corresponds to the height attained by this theoretical profile at the subsequent instant ti+1.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein in step A/b), the potential temnerature θi is calculated with the aid of the following expressions:

{

θ

⁢

⁢

i

=

Ti

⁡

(

pO

/

pi

)

D

D

=

R

/

Cp

in which:

pO is a predetermined value;

R is the universal ideal gas constant;

Cp is a specific heat constant of the air at constant pressure;

Ti is the current value of the static temperature at the instant ti; and

pi is the current value of the static pressure at the instant ti.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein in step A/c), to calculate the characteristics of the wind:

three components of the wind are calculated in a reference frame tied to the aircraft, on the basis of the current values of the following auxiliary parameters: the ground speed, the air speed, the sideslip and the incidence of the aircraft, said three components relating respectively to the roll, pitch and yaw axes of the aircraft; and

these three components are transformed into a terrestrial reference frame in such a way as to obtain said characteristics of the wind.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein in step B/g), said height threshold Zthres is calculated beforehand with the aid of the following expression:

Z thres=(Δ.θ.Δ V 2 )/( g .Δθ)

in which:

A is a predetermined constant;

θ is the potential temperature at the instant ti+1;

ΔV represents a vertical shear of the horizontal wind;

g is the acceleration due to gravity; and

Δθ is a vertical gradient of potential temperature.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein in step B/h), if the alert signal is emitted, the passengers of the aircraft are forewarned of the detection of turbulence.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein in step B/h), if the alert signal is emitted, account is taken of the detection of turbulence in the piloting of the aircraft.

7. An aircraft, which comprises a device that implements the method specified under claim 1 .

8. A method for detecting air turbulence in the environment of an aircraft, wherein, in the course of a flight of the aircraft, the following series of successive steps is carried out in an automatic and iterative manner;

A/at any instant ti:

a) measuring, with a measuring device, the current values at said instant ti of the static temperature and of the static pressure, as well as the current values of auxiliary parameters tied to the flight of the aircraft on board the aircraft;

b) calculating a potential temperature θi on the basis of said current values of the static temperature and of the static pressure;

c) determining characteristics of the wind;

d) determining on the basis of said characteristics of the wind and of said potential temperature θi, an extrapolated height hiE corresponding to the height attained by an isentropic trajectory of potential temperature θi, at a subsequent instant ti+1 such that ti+1=ti+Δt, Δt being a predetermined time interval; and

B/at the instant ti +1:

e) determining the current height hi+1 of the aircraft at this instant ti+1;

f) calculating a theoretical height δi+1 corresponding to the difference between said extrapolated height hiE and said current height hi+1;

g) comparing this theoretical height with a height threshold; and

h) emitting, if said theoretical height is below said height threshold, an alert signal signaling the detection of turbulence, wherein:

upon detection of turbulence, the following series of successive steps is moreover carried out in an automatic manner:

the vertical component of the wind existing outside the aircraft at the current position is determined;

the vertical component is filtered with respect to predetermined frequencies;

the quadratic mean is calculated over a predetermined time window of this filtered vertical component; and

a dissipation rate providing an indication as to the level of the turbulence is deduced from this quadratic mean and from a predetermined frequency.