Passive millimeter wave imaging sensor enhanced vision system

This paper describes the concept and development activities for a Passive Millimeter Wave Imaging Sensor System that offers significant safety benefits to world aviation. Made possible by recent technological breakthroughs, Passive Millimeter Wave (PMMW) imaging sensors provide visual-like images of objects within their fields of view even under low visibility conditions (e.g., fog, clouds, snow, sandstorms, and smoke) that would blind visual and infrared (IR) sensors. Unlike synthetic images (computer generated), the PMMW image is real and completely passive thus providing numerous advantages over competing technologies. The Boeing Company is member of a consortium developing an advanced, demonstrator version of a PMMW imaging sensor-identified as a `camera´ that, when front-mounted on an aircraft, will give images of the forward scene at a rare and quality sufficient to enhance aircrew vision and situational awareness under low visibility conditions. The characteristics of a PMMW image in a system baseline integrated with other flight avionics to form an Enhanced or Synthetic Vision System, is described. The results of a real-time simulator developed to perform pilot evaluations of the PWMM image are presented