AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS

AED 306

Mr. K. P. TER

Aircraft Communication & Radar

Systems

1
31/10/2024
 RADAR

RADAR, an acronym for RAdio Detecting And Ranging, works on the principle of emitting a high
frequency RF pulse and listening for its return.

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 RADAR: Primary RADAR

Primary radar range finding is based on measuring the time between a transmitted pulse in the UHF
or SHF band and the reception of the reflected pulse from the target. After each pulse is transmitted,
the antenna is switched to receive mode to detect the return signal. In the case of primary radar the
return is a direct reflection of the transmitted pulse and so the carrier within the reflected pulse is at
the same frequency as the transmitted one. Another mode known as secondary radar is also used
where the transmitted pulse triggers a transponder at the target, which then transmits its own pulse
or set of pulses in return that are of different frequency.

The timing between the transmitted and return pulses gives the distance of a target and the
transmitted beam is directional so that the vector to the target is also known.

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 RADAR: Primary RADAR

Parabolic antenna commonly used in a ground radar installation.

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 RADAR: Ground RADAR

Ground radar installations have widely varying ranges (1–300 nm) depending on their purpose and the
design and operating parameters, such as frequency, pulse timing sequence, and rate of rotation, are
determined by the range required

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 RADAR: Ground RADAR

As shown in the previous section, long-range radars have to use lower frequencies (3GHz) to avoid heavy
attenuation by rain. The pulse repletion time (PRT) needs to be sufficiently long for the return from a
distant target to be detected and in addition, the return signal is very weak, so long pulse lengths are used
to facilitate extraction of the return signal from background noise. The long pulse lengths exclude the radar
from detecting close targets. A long-range radar also needs a high antenna gain, which requires a large
antenna.
As discussed in the previous section, the rate of rotation of a long-range radar antenna needs to slow in
order to increase the dwell time and the number of hits per scan. Conversely, short-range radars can use
higher frequencies, shorter PRTs, shorter pulses, and smaller antennas with higher rotation rates.

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 RADAR: Airborne Weather RADAR

AWR fitted in the nose has become standard equipment on commercial transport aircraft and has led to a
significant improvement in safety and passenger comfort as it allows pilots to go around or over storms.
The nose cone in front of the antenna is plastic or glass fiber, which is transparent to SHF band radio waves.
Older systems use a parabolic antenna (Figure 5.8a) and frequencies in the range 4–8 GHz (λ = 3.8–7.5 cm)

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 RADAR: Airborne Weather RADAR

Primarily the radar detects precipitation by the backscattering of radio waves by water droplets or ice
crystals. The rise in attenuation coefficient for frequencies above 3 GHz shown is due to the increase in
absorption and scattering by the water droplets. The intensity removed by scattering is redistributed in all
directions, so a proportion is scattered back to the antenna.
The choice of frequency is essentially a compromise between producing sufficient backscattered intensity
and keeping the attenuation to an acceptable level and is also optimized for returns from large raindrops.
The hierarchy of reflectivity by various types of precipitation is illustrated

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 RADAR: Airborne Weather RADAR

revealing that wet hail

produces the strongest
return and dry snow the
weakest. Essentially, the
precipitation with the largest
droplet sizes containing
water gives the strongest
reflection. A trained operator
can interpret the
morphology of the image on
the screen to deduce a good
deal of information about
storms.

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 RADAR: Airborne Weather RADAR

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 RADAR: Secondary Surveillance RADAR

An issue with primary radar alone is that the only information from the target is the position, velocity, and
strength of the return. During the Second World War, a system was developed to identify “friend from foe”
(IFF) where a radio signal from the ground activated a system on the aircraft that transmitted a radio
response containing information to identify it. This has developed into the secondary surveillance radar
(SSR) system that is used to provide additional information about traffic that cannot be obtained by primary
radar alone. The device on the aircraft that transmits a signal in response to receiving one from the
ground station is called a transponder (merging of transmitter/responder).
The system has evolved in sophistication and has gone through three main evolutionary stages labeled,
mode A, mode C, and mode S.
Communication between ground stations and aircraft occur in all three modes while mode S provides, in
addition, the capability of aircraft to communicate with each other. A ground station SSR antenna is
normally attached to a rotating primary surveillance radar (PSR) antenna

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 RADAR: Secondary Surveillance RADAR

Rotating Primary surveillance radar (PSR) antenna with attached separate rotating secondary surveillance
radar (SSR) antenna
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 RADAR: Traffic Collision and Avoidance System (TCAS)

A collision avoidance system must use this surveillance data to determine whether any of the local aircraft
represent a collision threat, a method for displaying the level of this threat to the pilot and if necessary
determine what evasive action to take.
The local traffic information obtained by whatever surveillance method is in use, including the position and
velocity of aircraft in the vicinity, is passed to algorithms that determine if a threat exists. For any identified
threat, a second set of algorithms formulates an appropriate response. Each aircraft in the vicinity is
characterized by one of four levels of threat determined by linear extrapolation of the current horizontal
and vertical velocities of all aircraft into the future. The position of local traffic and the level of threat is
indicated on the cockpit display by one of the four standardized symbols displayed. Also shown above or
below the symbols is the relative height in units of hundreds of feet and an arrow at the side of the symbol
indicates if the intruder is climbing or descending.

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 RADAR: Traffic Collision and Avoidance System (TCAS)

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 RADAR: Radio Altimeter
The Radio Altimeter provides an accurate measurement of the height of the aircraft above the ground up to
a maximum of 5000 ft, though for most radio altimeters used on commercial aircraft the limit is 2500 ft. In
addition to providing continuous information about clearance above terrain when the aircraft is close
to the ground, the radio altimeter provides outputs for the autopilot during autoland and the flight
management computer. Although some systems work similarly to radar, that is, pulses are emitted and the
time between the emitted and return pulse measured to determine the distance above the ground, most
radio altimeters used in commercial airliners emit a continuous wave at frequencies in the range 4200–
4400 MHz (λ ~ 7 cm) in the SHF band.

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 RADAR: Radio Altimeter
The receiving and transmitting antennas are situated a sufficient distance apart to prevent direct pickup so
that the signal received is entirely due to reflected radio waves from the ground. This means that the
distance the beam travels from the transmitting to the receiving antenna is slightly greater than twice the
height off the ground. Commercial airliners have two independent radio altimeters and thus four antennas.

The frequency of the transmitted beam is swept up and down in a sawtooth pattern typically over a
frequency change of 100 MHz repeating about 300 times a second. Because of the time difference between
the transmitted and returning beam, there will be a frequency shift between the beam transmitted and the
one detected at the receiving antenna. Mixing the transmitted and reflected signals will produce an
intermediate or “beat” frequency that is the difference between the two. The beat frequency difference is
proportional to the height and is converted to a voltage, which is used to drive a direct reading display or as
data for the Flight Management Computer.

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 RADAR: Radio Altimeter

(a) Transmitter and receiver geometry in a continuous wave radio altimeter. The system is calibrated to
measure the height off the ground of the bottom of the lowest wheel in the landing configuration and in the
flared attitude. (b) Frequency variation of transmitted and reflected signals.

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