Basics of Airfield Lighting Systems: An Introduction to Airport lighting system (AGL).

Why airfield lighting?

Optical landing aids at an airport help guide aircraft during landing in different visibility conditions, such as daytime, nighttime, fog, rain, or haze. To ensure pilots can see them clearly, the brightness of these lights can be adjusted as needed.

Aircraft touch down at speeds of around 250 km/h, so airfield lighting must be highly reliable. Several lights failing in bad weather is unacceptable. That’s why most lighting systems have backup (redundant) setups, often two or three layers.