All About High Intensity Tower Lighting

By Carolyn Wilson


Quite a lot of thought and technology actually go into the trappings of modernity we take for granted nowadays. As innocuous passengers in an airline for example, there are only too many ways in which we describe our experiences, such as smooth, bad customer service, and the likes. However, the whole process is more convoluted than you think. Rarely do we take to account High intensity tower lighting, for example.

These are integral in that not so renowned enterprise called air traffic controlling. When we consider it, theres too many things that can happen up in the air. With a three hundred ton mammoth of steel up in the sky, the damage wrought by an uncontrolled collision is just too hard to fathom. Although an underappreciated job, we can agree that air traffic controllers do what should surely be among the most important jobs on Earth.

However, quite a lot of technicality is required to bring this about. From the type and quality of lighting, and so on and so forth, maximum effort is required so as to make sure that everything turns out according to plan. The use and positioning of the strobes are also very important too. When not used to their full potential, the whole enterprise can go down as inefficient and compromising.

However, this is a baseless negative imagination because the air traffic controllers are there to preclude this happening. But of course, theyre also aided by quite an impressive array of tools and equipment. And nowadays, applications are more automated, as can be seen with the utilization of the instrument approach procedure, which allows for the automatic visual identification of runway environments and informs the pilot of a prescribed approach point.

Of course, one also mustnt compromise the shorter structures in the area. After all, the landing space needs their own kind of illumination too. There are standards set out by aviation organization, and it would do well for private and public companies to stand by that. Aviation warning lamps are arranged in clusters on the ground and on specific heights. So as to set it apart from others, bright red lights are slowly becoming the standard.

Although both are common, new regulations are leaning towards the red variant more and more, and the latter, although still preferred in some respects, couldnt hold a candle to its versatility. There are many more light types, such as obstruction lights, red beacons, white lights, and then medium intensity strobes. All have been used at some point in history, and its always worth noting that different givens call for different responses.

What applies now doesnt generally apply to thirty years back. For example, nowadays, theres greater light pollution. All the city glow and light spills make this enterprise harder than its originally cut out to be. Add to the fact that fog and smog are more rampant nowadays, thanks or no thanks rather to greater pollution. Theres a greater need for the strobe lights to stand out. Another trend is that air flight is more frequent nowadays. And of course, higher frequency of an event, the higher the frequency of accidents. Efforts should be greater now than they were back then.

The use of these lighting systems are such. They warn other aircraft of another crafts presence. Therefore, it isnt necessarily tower based. You also have those that function as landing lights, flashing beacons, navigation lights, and wingtip strobes. This is a system with many and sundry parts, all of them necessary and indispensable.

Other features include warning paint, which gives all the trappings of standardization. In this application, white and red paint are painted on masts or antenna towers. Moreover, these have to erected at a certain height. With that, the pilot can carefully see or perceive the warning signs with more sureness or certainty. A good designer will also have to take to account certain discrete considerations, such as the contribution to light pollution and the effects on avian creatures or birds.




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