Kochi, Jan. 18:
The much-awaited radar facility at Cochin International Airport Ltd will
soon become a reality with the radar system procured by the Airports Authority
of India from Eldis Radar Systems, Czech Republic, having reached
Nedumbassery.
CIAL had completed the construction of the NAV-AID Building to house the
radar and was waiting procurement of equipment by the Airports Authority of
India. The radar system to be installed at CIAL is a combination of
Approach Surveillance Radar (ASR) and Mono-pulse Secondary Surveillance Radar
(MSSR).
The approach surveillance radar tracks aircraft approaching the airport
within a range of 20 nautical miles. Secondary surveillance
radar (SSR) is a system that not only detects and measures the position of
aircraft, its range and bearing, but also requests additional information from
the aircraft itself such as its identity and altitude.
Unlike primary radar systems that measure only the range and bearing of
targets by detecting reflected radio signals, SSR relies on targets equipped
with a radar transponder that replies to each interrogation signal by
transmitting a response containing encoded data. This radar has a longer
range of 200 nautical miles.
Installation of the radar at CIAL will tremendously improve the safety
of the airport as well as optimise runway utilisation, A.C.K. Nair,
Airport Director, said.
This will also reduce the landing time from the present 6 to 9 minutes
to approximately 3 minutes. Once the full-fledged operations are
commenced, the aircraft landing and take-off will be totally under the control
of the radar controller, thereby minimising the need for any judgment by the
pilot during these procedures, even under conditions of very limited
visibility.
This will vastly enhance the safety of operations besides minimising the
holding time of aircraft for landing, thereby saving fuel and also cutting down
emissions.
The installation, calibration, testing etc of the radar system may take
about three months, he added.
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