SURVEILLANCE AHM 913
Strategies and Support department.
“We use Terma SMRs - the Terma
SCANTER 2201i and, just installed, the
SCANTER 5502. As the air navigation
service provider, NAV CANADA owns,
operates, maintains and supports these
radars and systems,” explains Ferriss.
“These radars detect aircraft and vehicles
operating on the airport manoeuvring
surfaces and display these targets to
controllers. The controllers then coordinate
all traffic movement in a safe and
efficient manner.”
Ferriss mentions that the ATC and SMR
pictures are fused together so that the
SMR is already tracking an aircraft before
it touches down. In addition to the radar
and MLAT, flight plans and other vehicle
information is also fused with detected
targets to provide a more comprehensive
picture to the controllers.
NAV CANADA uses Saab/Sensis vehicle
transponders, Thales MOSQUITO vehicle
transponders and Era “squids,” which are
another type of transponder; and employs
a system from Indra Navia (of Norway)
to process the data from ATC and SMR
radars and blend it together with the
transponders and flight plan information
to display the needed information on all
targets. This also reduces the appearance
of false tracks caused by similar targets
that are actually the same.
Operations elsewhere
Many airports employ just one radar unit,
but larger and busier airports can have
multiple systems.
Toronto Pearson, for example, has
three SMRs, while other major Canadian
airports such as Montreal, Ottawa and
Halifax have just one. NAV CANADA
also has a Terma SCANTER 2200 marine
surveillance radar at Toronto City airport,
located on the Toronto Islands in Lake
Ontario, to provide a security picture for
the maritime approaches to the airport.
While pilots are familiar with radio
terminology and procedures, ground
operators must also know what to say
and how to say it. That’s why NAV
CANADA has published a Ground Traffic
Phraseology guide to make sure everyone
communicates clearly and consistently.
In all, there are more than 400 Terma
radar systems installed at 140 airports
around the world. Jesper Famme of Terma
says that the company’s SCANTER 5502
can include an additional simultaneous
Doppler channel for the final approach
of descending aircraft out to five nautical
miles, as well as moving objects on the
ground.
“With this, together with an Embedded
Tracker and a new land suppressing
feature introduced as the Enhanced
SMR, controllers have an additional, and
therefore better, level of awareness and
safety,” he concludes.
22 February – March 2019 RAMP EQUIPMENT NEWS