Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:55:49.390Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

II – The Reliability of Height and Identity Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2009

H. Gent
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Secondary surveillance radar is a combined radar and communication system, which provides aircraft position (range and azimuth) on the radar side and identity and height on the communication side. It is a main working tool in Air Traffic Control today and the information it produces is an ingredient in providing separation between aircraft in flight. This paper is concerned only with the reliability of the identity (Mode C) and the height (Mode A) data, and not with the radar position data as such. ‘Reliability’ is taken to mean ‘can the values reported by the SSR be relied upon?’ Consequently we are not concerned with cases where an interrogation elicits no response, but only with responses which are present but not correct. Furthermore, a ‘Mode C discrepancy’ is defined as a read-out that disagrees with the altimeter reading observed by the pilot, so that we are not concerned with altimeter errors, but only with the faithfulness (or otherwise) with which the SSR reproduces the altimeter reading. In cases where the Mode C read-out is obviously wrong, but no pilot's report is available, it is not always possible to distinguish between an altimeter error and a Mode C discrepancy.

Type
Secondary Radar for Collision Avoidance and ATC
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , May 1982 , pp. 204 - 219
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1NATS Manual of Air Traffic Services; Pan I. Civil Aviation Authority, 1973 (with subsequent amendments).Google Scholar
2Guide to Principles and Use of Secondary Surveillance Kadar (SSR) in the United Kingdom. Aeronautical Information Circular 76/1976. Civil Aviation Authority, 1976.Google Scholar
3En Route Supplement, Northern Europe and North Atlantic. Royal Air Force Flight Information Publication, October 1981 (and subsequent editions).Google Scholar