presented to: by: date: federal aviation administration early tests of aircraft tracking on nwrt par...
TRANSCRIPT
Presented to:
By:
Date:
Federal AviationAdministrationEarly Tests of
Aircraft Trackingon NWRT
PAR Working Group
William Benner, Weather Processors Team Manager
December 5, 2006
Federal AviationAdministration
2Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
History
• Performed National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) Hardware Upgrades– Installed Digital Multiplexer for parallel processing
• No impact to existing weather mission• Allows data to be fed to both the weather and surveillance
Digital Signal Processors (DSPs)
– Installed surveillance/track DSP (SKY) provides aircraft tracking capability
• SKY Computers Inc. has since been dissolved
• Delivered, installed and tested surveillance/track processor software
Federal AviationAdministration
3Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
NWRT Architecture with TrackingSystran Link Exchange Card (Multiplexer)
Federal AviationAdministration
4Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
Results
• Demonstrated initial tracking capability• NWRT data compared with simultaneous ASR-9
data to validate surveillance tracks – Data analysis and visual comparison confirmed tracks from the
NWRT were valid detections
• Proved the Potential for Multi-functional Phased Array Radar– Gathered concurrent weather and surveillance data– No Impact on NWRT operations or performance– Low track fidelity and resolution due to lack of monopulse
Federal AviationAdministration
5Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
NWRT Data gathered September 2005
Federal AviationAdministration
6Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
ASR- 9 Data gathered September 2005
Federal AviationAdministration
7Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
Correlated Data from NWRT & ASR-9
• Black arrows indicate ASR-9 Data
• Blue Circles indicate NWRT Data
Federal AviationAdministration
8Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
NWRT Altitude Measurement
• NWRT measurement limited due to lack of monopulse
• NWRT angular resolution is about 1.5o which equates to about a 2400 foot altitude error at 30nm.
• Aircraft transition to lower beam results in a large altitude shift (~4800ft).
• However, NWRT altitude coarsely tracks with ASR-9 tracks.
Federal AviationAdministration
9Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
ASR-9 vs NWRT Altitude Comparison
Target 3116 - Altitude19 September 2005 19:06:16 - 19:14:54
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
68700 68800 68900 69000 69100 69200 69300 69400
Time (sec)
Alt
itu
de
(fee
t) ASR-9 w/Beacon
NWRT-PAR
2.25 deg beam
.75 deg beam
25.7 nm
8.9 nm17.1 nm
Target 3116 - Altitude19 September 2005 19:06:16 - 19:14:54
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
68700 68800 68900 69000 69100 69200 69300 69400
Time (sec)
Alt
itu
de
(fee
t) ASR-9 w/Beacon
NWRT-PAR
Target 3116 - Altitude19 September 2005 19:06:16 - 19:14:54
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
68700 68800 68900 69000 69100 69200 69300 69400
Time (sec)
Alt
itu
de
(fee
t) ASR-9 w/Beacon
NWRT-PAR
2.25 deg beam
.75 deg beam
25.7 nm
8.9 nm17.1 nm
2.25 deg beam
.75 deg beam
25.7 nm
8.9 nm17.1 nm
Federal AviationAdministration
10Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
Current Developments
• Developing Surveillance/Track management capability– Correlated track database allows active tracking of aircraft
• Enhancing real-time surveillance/track processor
– Improved real-time SKY process scheduler allows faster radar scan rates
• Track Processor processes first four pulses in a dwell
• Scheduler used during test only able to complete processing for dwells of 16 pulses or more - Goal is to handle all pulse/dwell schemes
• Allows users to continue evaluating the potential multi-functional capability of the NWRT system
Federal AviationAdministration
11Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
Current Developments continued
• Remote site display capability– XML formatted data output will enable shared, web
based Weather and Tracking displays– Remote site display planned for WJHTC and NSSL
• Provide data to University of Oklahoma for continuing research – OU Radar Engineering is currently researching
target detection methodologies in order to separate surveillance data from weather data more easily
Federal AviationAdministration
12Early Tests on MPAR Aircraft TrackingDecember 5, 2006
Future R&D/Tasking
• Upgrade NWRT to perform monopulse tracking– Improve tracking accuracy and resolution
• Modify Real-time Controller/Scheduler– Implement adaptive closed loop tracking and scanning
system
• Facilitate hardware and software technology insertion – Initial investigation of possible future SKY equipment
replacement completed, PC based solution will need to be finalized with state of the art equipment when needed
– Support future NWRT upgrades