Definition
The set of procedures, separation standards, and operating practices used to prevent aircraft from encountering the disruptive vortices trailing behind other aircraft, particularly during approach, landing, departure, and parallel runway operations.
Plain English
Steps taken to keep an aircraft out of the swirling air left behind by another aircraft, so it doesn't get rolled or upset by that air.
Context Anchor
Seen in procedures for simultaneous approaches to nearby parallel runways, including Simultaneous Offset Instrument Approaches, where aircraft may be close enough for wake turbulence to matter.
Derivation
Mitigation comes from the Latin mitigare, meaning to soften or make less severe. In aviation, the wake itself can't be removed, but its effect on following aircraft can be reduced by spacing, timing, and flight path design.
Why Pilots Care
Prevents sudden rolls or loss of control that can occur when flying through another aircraft's wake vortices during close parallel approaches.
Analogy
It is like avoiding the rough water behind a large boat. The boat has already passed, but the water it disturbed can still affect anything that follows too closely.
Intuition Check
Do not read mitigation as elimination. Wake turbulence mitigation reduces the risk; it does not guarantee that wake turbulence is gone.
Example Sentence 1
During simultaneous offset instrument approaches, the angled final course provides wake turbulence mitigation between the two streams of arriving traffic.
Example Sentence 2
Controllers apply additional wake turbulence mitigation by increasing the minimum time interval between arrivals during SOIA operations.