Wx radar

[MarkJJ]

Just wonder if anyone can tell me if a/c Wx radar is detectable on PSR or SSR? If not, would would pick up a Wx radar?

Thanks

[MarkJJ]

Er thanks for your some what direct reply, I perhaps worded that wrong, when flying I have never heard of a civil controllers radar showing Wx radar of have ever spoke to controllers about PSR radar painting on their displays, I'll ask one tonight on my return leg.

[Burnie5204]

If I understand correctly are you asking if Weather shows up on an ATC PSR/SSR display?


If so the answer is - not normally but sometimes if the weather is really bad then it may deflect the RADAR signal and appear as a Primary RADAR Trace.

I do understand though that there are some airports that have installed a Weather RADAR head to specifically detect weather but I dont know whether this is overlaid onto the PSR/SSR display or on a separate screen.

[BARKINGMAD]

Try waving the topic direct to the wonderful team via the ATC issues forum?

From my limited (UK based) knowledge, mostly they can't see weather on their screens, there's too much info there already.

They would rather we aircrew found it, assessed it and requested avoidance, thereby taking some of the workload off them, which at busy avoidance periods can be very high.

[MarkJJ]

Hi,

No I'm asking if an aircraft has Wx radar turn on to 'Wx', and he (or she) is under PSR will that Wx radar sending out energy be detected and displayed on a controllers display

[SloppyJoe]

No he is not asking if weather shows up on the ATC radar display. He is wondering if you could track a 777-200 from its wx radar.

Some military radar shows up as a beam on an aircraft wx radar screen but am sure you have seen that many times, probably even on the return leg you are doing right now.

[MarkJJ]

Yep I know that, our radars tend to be more accurate. I'm asking about the aircrafts Wx radar painting on the controllers screen.

[MarkJJ]

Thanks sloppy joe, yes seen high energy ares giving returns on Wx radar on the a/c I was wondering as I say if a controller can see an aircraft with its Wx radar on, I'm presuming they can

[island_airphoto]

No - aircraft weather radar does not show up on an ATC display. It would be highly counterproductive to run ATC radar and WX radar on the same frequency because the scopes (both ends) would be full of annoying lines and squiggles. You can sometime see this if an airplane coming at you has their radar on. If my rusty memory serves, the airplane radar is around 10 GHZ and the ATC radar is around 2-3 GHz

Yes - it is possible with the right gear to find aircraft radar. This would be something any halfway competent military could do.

The other question - When I was working at Westinghouse we were proud of our ASR-9 radar. It has vastly improved ability to show weather and aircraft compared to what came before. Knowing a lot about the project, I used to suggest certain settings to the local controller to help me out with weather

See Radar Basics

[SLFgeek]

Originally Posted by island_airphoto

No - aircraft weather radar does not show up on an ATC display. It would be highly counterproductive to run ATC radar and WX radar on the same frequency because the scopes (both ends) would be full of annoying lines and squiggles.

To see a practical example of why this is a bad idea, look at any NOAA/NWS WSR-88 weather radar image, when the sun is rising/setting directly on the horizon from the radar head. The sun is emitting wide spectrum energy, and you will see a roughly 2-degree strobe painted all the way to the edge of coverage.

[MarkJJ]

Ok thanks guys I was just wondering if PSR could pick it up that's all, I see now the cycles that PSR different than the a/C Wx, I just wondered as I see high energy areas some times on the AC Wx radar that are not as far as I know on that cycle range.

I'm not suggesting it would be a good idea or such, I just wondered if it was possible the PSR could pick up the energy off the radar, thanks for the clarification.

[VinRouge]

Frequency and prf are related to target size. As rain droplets (detected by wx radar) are pretty small, it needs relatively high frequency and prf to detect weather.

Atc radar, at least in primary radar sense, has a much longer wavelength as it's targets are, well, much bigger!

[Captain Smithy]

Many PSRs also have a Wx beam as well as an Aircraft beam, which can display Wx on the display as well. It's not always used however.

[phiggsbroadband]

There are ALARM (Air launched Anti Radiation Missiles) and HARM (High-speed Anti Radiation Missiles.) So there is a military radar system that can detect any source of microwave radiation.
Whether it is now switched on whilst an aircraft overflies it... Who knows?

[VinRouge]

Phiggs, no it can't.