On Feb 5, 5:57*am, Robin wrote:
I've imagined that birds detect thermals in part with superior vision.
They can see the little bits of stuff in the air that show motion. Now
it looks like America's Cup sailors will be lighting up the little
bits with lasers.http://www.catchthewindinc.com/

Thermals are so dynamic that detecting them beyond a 1000 meters or so
won't be terribly useful. They'll just dissipate before you can get
there. You can play this game in Condor Competition Flight Simulator
but setting the thermal visibility to various ranges. Heading off for
a thermal in the distance doesn't work.

OTOH, detecting them at just hundred meters would be very useful.
Just a 3 second warning that you are about to hit a strong thermal
would make "dolphin flying" work far better than it does. It might
reduce thermalling time from 20% to 10% in a high performance
glider.

Knowing that a strong core is just a hundred meters to the west when
you're struggling with a half knot thermal would be fantastic.

Two technologies suggest themselves - millimeter radar-on-a-chip and
LIDAR. Both are getting smaller and less power hungry by the day.