I don't realistically think that we're about to have a DWL (Doppler Wind Lidar) in our cockpits scanning wind fields, convergence lines and thermals out 3-5km. But... it appears to be more feasible now for those with DOD (or deep) funding. Perhaps, glider pilots with high aspirations of record setting and enough money might be able to set up something like this in 5 years.

Dave Emmitt, the scientist who presented the paper is THE DWL man... involved in most of the research flying lidar wind projects.

It brings up some interesting ethics issues. If a future UAV starts behaving just like a sailplane, circling and weaving in lift... and is designed to spy and attack... perhaps manned sporting gliders in other parts of the world would be in perilous danger of being shot down (maybe I should include Idaho and Wyoming too).

Walt Rogers WX