SURVEILLANCE
TTerma technology can be found at
several Canadian airports
Far-sighted
In this article, Edward Lundquist explains the
benefits of ground surveillance at an airport.
Anyone can see that there are
a lot of things moving at an
airport, both in the air and on
the ground. But the challenge for airport
controllers is to see everything, so it all
moves safely and efficiently. For this they
rely on radar and transponders to track
aircraft and vehicle movements in the
manoeuvring area. This helps controllers
to advise pilots and drivers where to go,
which is even more critical at night or in
bad weather or low visibility conditions.
The ability of an airport to operate at
optimal or maximum capacity depends
on the efficient handling of traffic,
independent of weather conditions,
especially at peak times. The purpose of
the surface movement radar (or SMR)
is to maximise safety in the airport
by allowing Air Traffic Controllers to
monitor, advise and instruct aircraft,
vehicles and personnel which are moving
around a station.
SMR is very suitable for this purpose as
it operates in any weather, independent of
the environmental conditions, such as day
or night, fog or precipitation.
Technology in Latvia
At Riga International airport in Latvia,
surface movement radar is one of the
essential data sensors integrated with the
Advanced Surface Movement Guidance
and Control System (the A-SMGCS).
Riga’s A-SMGCS system is
interconnected with the air traffic control
system for flight plan correlation and
presence of ATC radar data. That way,
ground controllers know everything about
aircraft that are approaching, those that
have just landed or those about to take off.
Aleksejs Javorskis is the chief of the
radar division in Latvijas Gaisa Satiksme,
the organisation responsible for providing
safe and efficient air navigation service
in Latvia. He says that MLAT (multilateration
surveillance systems) systems,
which include wide area multi-lateration
(WAM) and local area multi-lateration
(LAM), are used as essential sources of
secondary surveillance data to detect cooperative
targets (in other words, those
that are supposed to be there), which
are equipped with Mode S secondary
surveillance radar (SSR) transponders,
or ADS-B “squitters” and/or mode 3/a
transponders. The SMR is the source of
primary surveillance data for A-SMGCS
system used to detect any non-cooperative
targets or objects that could
appear in the manoeuvring area and
aprons, for example, through a vehicle’s
ADS-B squitter failure.
Vehicle drivers must comply with
“Vehicle Traffic Regulations on the
Aerodrome Manoeuvring Area,” and all
vehicles permitted to operate on the
manoeuvring area must be equipped with
ADS-B squitters, or will be escorted by a
vehicle equipped with ADS-B squitter.
Emergency vehicles, such as firefighting
apparatus, ambulances and rescue
vehicles, as well as snow ploughs, airport
security and maintenance staff, need
access to both taxiways and runways.
Riga’s tower and ground controllers
are responsible for the safe separation
between vehicles, as well as that between
aircraft and vehicles. “Of course, any
aircraft always has an advantage over any
vehicle,” admits Javorskis.
A Norwegian perspective
In Norway, Avinor is responsible for air
traffic control services, and owns and
operates 46 airports, with some of them
20 February – March 2019 RAMP EQUIPMENT NEWS