Radar Evaluation

For more than 25 years the team of experts at steep GmbH has been testing at two-year intervals the ATC radar systems of the German air force (PSR / SSR / Mode S). Regular inspections safeguard the adherence of primary and secondary radar to the thresholds defined for their performance capabilities, also under national and international standards.

In addition to these services for Germany’s air force, steep also provides support for the initial acceptance of new ATC or approach control radar (ACR) systems in a number of European countries and in tracking flights in the Near East.

Christoph Stupperich

Telephone: +49 228 6681 260

E-Mail: Christoph.Stupperich@steep.de

Head of Radar Engineering

Services

Users of radar systems like civil aviation authorities, flight navigation service providers or military ATC must track flights by means of radar systems in order to verify these flights’ compliance with the regulations and standards issued by specific manufacturers and on the international level (ICAO, EUROCONTROL).

Flight tracking generally involves an analysis of the following parameters:

  • Positional accuracy in range and azimuth (systematic errors and standard deviation) compared with SSR and GPS references
  • Probability of detection (Pd) for PSR and SSR / Mode S in graph or tabular form
  • Correlation rate of PSR and SSR
  • Cone of silence visualization
  • Decoding rates (mode A/C and mode S)
  • False destination analyses
  • Sensor coverage calculations based on terrain data (screening)

System performance testing is used to verify a system’s compliance with all specified performance values and all operational requirements. This involves testing regularly the parameters for the aerial, transmitter, receiver and signal processing. In addition, there are necessary comparisons between the devices.