PRECISION AIRCRAFT HEIGHT ESTIMATION WITH MULTIPLE RADARS

J. M. ten Have

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	Civil aviation authorities have a requirement for the application of devices that are capable of determining the geometric height of aircraft above flight level 290 with a high degree of precision. These devices, called height monitoring units (HMUs), should pave the way for the safe and expeditious introduction of a reduced vertical separation of 1000 ft above flight level 290 (29,000 ft). This paper outlines the design philosophy, as well as the prototype development, of such an HMU, called the Dual-synchronized Autonomous Monitoring System (DAMS). This device operates fully independently of any airborne equipment, such as secondary surveillance radar transponders. The configuration consists basically of two standard marine radars with both axes of revolution situated in a horizontal plane. With this configuration, it is possible to determine the trajectory of an aircraft and, in particular, the geometric height above ground level within typical radar slant range coverage of some 18 km.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 40, Number 2
Pages:	151 - 160
Cite this article:	Have, J. M. ten, "PRECISION AIRCRAFT HEIGHT ESTIMATION WITH MULTIPLE RADARS", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 40, No. 2, Summer 1993, pp. 151-160.
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