Imagine a cold, dark morning. A commercial flight is descending toward a busy hub airport, but a thick layer of fog blankets the runway, reducing visibility to almost zero. The pilot cannot see the ground, the lights, or even the wingtips.
You might have seen them before: massive, white domes, often perfectly spherical like a traditional soccer ball, located near major airports, on military bases, or atop remote mountains. This structure is called a “radome”, and inside it is a high-tech, sensitive radar antenna that keeps air traffic moving safely.
Modular Airport Surveillance Radar, featuring non-rotating arrays offers a way to enhance performance in a cost-effective way. With Non-Rotating Arrays (NORA) starting to move from conceptual designs into commercial products, Modular Airport Surveillance Radar becomes a comprehensive solution for upgrades and system renewal.
The world’s skies are a busy, constantly moving network. Every day, tens of thousands of aircraft take off, fly, and land across the globe, connecting cities, people, and economies. According to FlightRadar24, between 100,000 and 130,000 flights operate each day worldwide.
Communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS) systems assessments are complicated, time consuming and costly. Let's consider the current scenario: if an ANSP wants to measure the accuracy of their radar, instrument landing systems (ILS) or other RF-based navigation aid, there are two ways to do so. First is the use of an aircraft, where the planes have to be scheduled and may or may not announce their arrival to air traffic control.
This article explains the basics of PSR, SSR and ADS-B as the main sensors used for Air Traffic Control. It touches upon their limitations and emerging challenges of
the changing environment in which they operate. New trends and proven technical
solutions are introduced.
