A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/693369
o Surveillance Automation Analysis Team (SAAT): Concentration seemed to surround either potential STARS changes or surveillance changes (WAM, LGB tower raise, etc . ) to mitigate the tracking problems at SCT and to deal wit h the Inglewood Stadium risks. Nothing had yet been investigated by the team to see what could be done to improve t he existing radar performance. Despite the issue being poorly located radars, could something be done to "dampen" the effects of the bad replies received from the ai rcraft that are caused by the environment and create poorly position ed reports sent to automation? A meeting was held between the Mode S beacon system second level engineers (SLE) and MIT/Lincol n Labs, TSC, and Noblis to brain storm ideas and for SLE to pre sent their initial i deas and validate assumptions. Several promising ideas were exchanged and these will be briefed in the upcoming "in - person" SAAT meeting in D .C. These changes would present a paradigm shift of previous surveillance system behaviorism wh ile i n a single - sensor environment. The previous mindset was that, when unsure - it was better to send ANYTHING as opposed to sending nothing. However, with the automation world transforming to multi - sensor tracking and fusion, along with overlapping surve illance coverage, the mentality may need to shift to, when unsure - NOTHING is better than possibly bad. o Radar Performance Issues: o Centennial, CO Tower (APA) - The false tag ups at APA are due to false beacon targets that are coming from the Parker (QPK) long - range radar site. CARTS previously masked out these false targets in the past, whereas STARS has a higher s tandard for radar performance. Attempt s made by OSF and TSLE personnel to mask these false targets via STARS adaptation have helped but were not completely successful. There are limits , and without a STARS software fix , these false targets coming from QPK will continue to clutter the displays unless some optimization is done at the QPK radar site. A change to the radar's STC has been implemented, tested , and evaluated. Analysis has demonstrated a 3 0% reduction of false targets. There are additional steps that remain to remedy this problem. o Pensacola, FL (P31) - An ongoing issue with primary only false targets when opening in fus ion. Several attempt s have been made on the ASR - 11 systems feeding P31 to fix this issue as well as changes to STARS adaptation. While there have been improvements, there have been numerous days where the clutter has been unmanageable. Several telcon s have occurred with vario us groups to push progress towards a better presentation. Now that a part has been replaced in the target processor, AJW - 147 and TSOG will re - optimize the PNS radar, already having several parameters mapped out for changes to improve the performance. There is an additional part needed to repair the weather , however , the FAA Logistics Center no longer has an operational part and must contract with Raytheon Canada to acquire/repair ASR - 11 WX beam switches. TIME BASED FLOW MANAGEMENT (TBFM): Eric Owens (I90) is the Article 48 Representative for TBFM. Mr. Owens' report to the membership is below: