Saab Collaborating With Aveillant To Show Product Compatible With Current ATC System

A technical demonstration of an end to end wind farm radar clutter removal solution that can be integrated with operational Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems is being planned by Saab Sensis Corporation and Aveillant. The program will demonstrate that seamless, clutter-free ATC surveillance data from non-cooperating targets can be produced using Aveillant’s 3D Holographic Radar, along with existing Primary Surveillance Radar (PSR). Saab Sensis’ fusion technology will generate a combined output in the common ASTERIX ATM format from Aveillant’s 3D Holographic Radar and data provided by NATS from Glasgow International Airport’s PSR.

A secondary demonstration will incorporate Saab Sensis Wide Area Multilateration (WAM) data with the PSR and Holographic Radar data to illustrate the ability to use both cooperative and non-cooperative surveillance sources. WAM uses a distributed system of non-rotating sensors that triangulate an aircraft’s position based on transponder signals, either passively or through interrogation, providing once-per-second update rate.

Future growth and expansion of wind farms is being hindered due to the adverse interference wind turbines have on air traffic control radars in operation near wind farms. In recent years, several proposals have been made to mitigate radar interference but no reliable zero-degradation solution currently exists. “A true solution to wind farm radar clutter is in high demand, but thus far has not been achieved,” said Ken Kaminski, senior vice president of Saab Sensis. “Our expertise in radar data integration is well suited to addressing the challenge of fusing Aveillant’s Holographic Radar, PSR and other sources into a single surveillance feed for ATC.”

Saab Sensis’ fusion technology combines primary plot extracted data from the local Airport PSR with either the co-mounted Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) (when operating in combiner mode) or with a remote asynchronous SSR site (when operating in Assignor mode).

“Seamless integration of technologies has been perceived as the great unmet challenge of the wind farm and radar issue. This collaboration should make that concern a thing of the past,” said David Crisp, chief executive officer of Aveillant. “Holographic Radar represents the future of wind farm clutter solutions. Wide Area Multilateration is recognized as an effective replacement for secondary surveillance radar for aircraft separation. Because both systems are 3D and have high-frequency reporting, Saab Sensis was an obvious partner to help create the next generation of radar.”

Aveillant’s Holographic Radar clearly distinguishes between moving objects with differing behaviors and 3D trajectories. Unlike the current generation of ATC radars that scan a narrow beam using the familiar rotating antenna, Holographic Radar constantly looks in all directions at once. Aveillant’s solution continuously measures the dynamic characteristics of each individual target, as a result it sees both wind turbines and aircraft and can tell the difference between the two. Aveillant has recently deployed its system at Cambridge Airport in the United Kingdom which will provide a long term proving ground for optimization of the technology.

(Windfarm image from file)

FMI: www.saabsensis.com, www.aveillant.com