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Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR)

Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) is a radar system used in air traffic control that detects aircraft position and requests additional information from aircraft, such as identity and altitude. SSR continuously transmits interrogation pulses that aircraft transponders respond to with a coded reply containing this information. Modes A, C, and S are interrogation modes that request identity, altitude, and additional data respectively. SSR provides more accurate positional data than primary radar and enables air traffic control to safely direct air traffic.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
318 views18 pages

Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR)

Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR) is a radar system used in air traffic control that detects aircraft position and requests additional information from aircraft, such as identity and altitude. SSR continuously transmits interrogation pulses that aircraft transponders respond to with a coded reply containing this information. Modes A, C, and S are interrogation modes that request identity, altitude, and additional data respectively. SSR provides more accurate positional data than primary radar and enables air traffic control to safely direct air traffic.

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Ye Min Oo
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Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR)

Radar
 Radar systems come in a variety of sizes and have
different performance specifications.
 Some radar systems are used for air-traffic control
at airports and others are used for long range
surveillance and early-warning systems.
Primary Radar
 A Primary Radar transmits high-frequency signals which are
reflected at targets. The arisen echoes are received and evaluated. This
means, unlike secondary radar sets a primary radar unit receive its
own emitted signals as an echo again.
 Primary radar sets are fitted with an additional interrogator as
secondary radar mostly, to combine the advantages of both systems.
Secondary Radar
 At secondary radar sets the airplane must have a transponder
(transmitting responder) on board and this transponder responds to
interrogation by transmitting a coded reply signal.
 This response can contain much more information, than a primary
radar unit is able to acquire (E.g. an altitude, an identification code or
also any technical problems on board such as a radio contact loss ...).
Secondary Surveillance Radar
 Secondary Surveillance Radar is a radar

used in Air Traffic Control <ATC>, which


not only detects and measures the position of
aircraft but also requests additional
information from the aircraft itself such as its
identity and altitude.
The purpose of SSR is to improve the ability to detect and identify aircraft
while it additionally provides automatically the flight level (pressure
altitude) of a flight. An SSR continuously transmits interrogation pulses
(continuously in Modes A and C and selectively in Mode S) as its antenna
rotates, or is electronically scanned in space.
Mode-A

 Although 4096 different identity codes available in a mode A reply may seem
enough, purposes the once particular codes have been reserved for emergency
and other special number is significantly reduced. Ideally an aircraft would keep
the same code from take-off until landing as it is used at the air traffic control
centre to display the aircraft's callsign using a process known as code/callsign
conversion. Clearly the same mode A code should not be given to two aircraft at
the same time as the controller on the ground could be given the wrong callsign
with which to communicate with the aircraft. There have also been cases where
an aircraft was delayed from takeoff as no mode A code for that route was
available until another aircraft had landed.
Mode-C

 The mode C reply provides height increments of 100 feet which


was initially adequate for monitoring aircraft separated by at least
1000 feet. However as airspace became increasingly conjested it
became important to monitor that aircraft were not moving out of
their assigned flight level. A slight change of a few feet could
cross a theshold and be indicated as the next increment up and a
change of 100 feet. Smaller increments were desireable.
Mode Pulse spacing Purpose
A 8µS identity
B 17µS identity
C 21µS Altitude
D 25µS undefined
S 2µS multipurpose

Fig.2 Mode A and C interrogation format


Mode S (Monopulse secondary surveillance
radar)

 Mode S system was intended to operate with just a single reply from an
aircraft, a system known as monopulse. The accompanying diagram
shows a conventional main beam of an SSR antenna to which has been
added a "difference" beam. The produce the main, or "sum" beam
the signal is distributed horizontally across the antenna aperture.
This feed system is divided into two equal halves and then added to produce the original sum
beam. However it is subtracted to produce a difference output. A signal arriving exactly
normal, or boresight, to the antenna will produce a maximum output in the sum beam but a
zero signal in the difference beam. Away from boresight the signal in the sum beam will be
less but there will be a non-zero signal in the difference beam. The angle of arrival of the
signal can be determined by measuring the ration of the signals in the sum and difference
beams. The ambiguity about boresight can be resolved as there is a 180° phase change in the
difference signal either side of boresight. Bearing measurements can be made on a single
pulse, hence monopulse, but accuracy can be improved by averaging measurements made on
several or all of the pulses received in a reply from an aircraft.
Comparison Mode A,C,S

Standard Monopulse Mode S


SSR SSR

Replies per
20 - 30 4-8 1
scan
Range accuracy 230m rms 13m rms 7m rms
Bearing
0.08° rms 0.04° rms 0.04° rms
accuracy
Height
100 ft 100 ft 25 ft
resolution
Garble
poor good best
resistance
Data capacity
0 0 56 - 1280 bits
(uplink)
Data capacity
23 bits 23 bits 56 - 1280 bits
(downlink)
Identity
4096 4096 16 million
permutations
Accessories
 Transponder
 Identification Friend or Foe(Military use)

Transponder
 A transponder is an electronic device that produces
a response when it receives a radio-frequency
interrogation. In aviation, aircraft have transponders to
assist in identifying them on radar and on other aircraft's
collision avoidance systems.

Identification Friend or Foe (IFF)


 Identification friend or foe (IFF) is an identification system designed for
command and control. It is a system that enables military, and national (civilian-
located ATC) interrogation systems to distinguish friendly aircraft, vehicles, or
forces, and to determine their bearing and range from the interrogator.
Principle of operation
 The interrogator on the ground transmits coded pulses with different
modes.
 Every mode represents a different question. For conventional SSR (i.e.
not mode-S) the choice of questions is very simple. The controller wants to
know the identity of the aircraft („Who are you?”). The Radar gives a 2
dimensional position fix of the aircraft, but air traffic control is very much a
3 dimensional process, so „What height are you?” completes the positional
fix.
 These different questions determine the MODE of operation. The
aircrafts transponder reply with a CODE. The chosen mode is encoded in
the Coder. (By the different modes different questions can be defined to the
 The transmitter modulates these coded impulses with the RF frequency.
 A receiving antenna and a transponder are in the airplane.
 The receiver amplifies and demodulates the interrogation impulses.
 The decoder decodes the question according to the desired information
and induces the coder to prepare the suitable answer.
 The coder encodes the answer.
 The transmitter amplifies the reply impulses and modulates these with the
RF reply-frequency.
 Again in the interrogator on the ground: The receiver amplifies and
demodulates the reply impulses.
Fig.1 Simple block diagram of secondary surveillance radar
Comparison Primary Radar vs. Secondary Radar
 Primary radar unit has a major quality: It works with passive echoes. The
transmitted high-frequency impulses are reflected by the target and then
received by the same radar unit. Well, direct cause of the reflected echo is the
transmitting impulse sent out by the radar unit.
 Secondary radar units work according to another principle: These work
with active answer signals. The secondary radar unit transmits and also receives
high-frequency impulses, the so called interrogation. This isn't simply reflected,
but received by the target by means of a transponder which receives and
processes. After this the target answers with another frequency, the response
telegram which is produced and transmitted.
 Both systems have advantages and disadvantages due to the different
principles. If one wins safe information about direction, height and distance of
the targets with the primary radar, then the secondary surveillance radar still
provides additional information, like signal identification and also the altitude
of the targets.
3 SSR radars

Manday International Airport

Yangon International Airport

Myeik Airport

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