Thermal perturbation of trailing vortices

The possibility of diminishing the danger of trailing vortices through ther mal forcing is investigated. It is shown that heating the vortices would ha ve two beneficial effects. First, it would cause the vortices to descend mo re rapidly thus clearing the flight path more quickly. Second, it would cau se the vortices to draw closer together, thus greatly increasing the growth rate of the short-wave instabilities that can ultimately destroy the vorti ces through cross-diffusion. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales E lsevier SAS.