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Modular Curriculum for ATSEP and ATCO training with SkyRadar's NextGen 8 GHz Pulse Radar

Written by Ulrich Scholten, PhD | Jun 09, 2020

This article explains how SkyRadar's NextGen 8 GHz Pulse radar can be used for ATSEP and ATCO training.

This document looks suggests a curriculum for ATCO and ATSEP in civil aviation and defence.

A general curriculum including also SkyRadar's 24 GHz PSR and FMCW for ATC and Universities can be found in the article Curriculum for NextGen 8 GHz Pulse, 24 GHz PSR and 24 GHz FMCW.

We suggest a practically oriented curriculum for air traffic control personnel. In ATC, the training supply will vary between Air Traffic Controllers (ATCO) and Air Traffic Safety Electronic Personnel (ATSEP). For ATCO's it is important to understand the functional principles and the operations. In case of malfunctioning they need to have an understanding about what is wrong and able to rapidly communicate the problem to the ATSEP in charge.

ATSEP need to understand functional principle and operations too, but their focus is the rapid servicing. Based on the erratic behavior of the system (e.g. perturbed plots and tracks in the PPI), they shall be able to rapidly locate the error and fix it.

The NextGen Pulse radar is the perfect tool for know-how transfer in the context of the delivery and installation of a new primary surveillance radar. Concepts and features of the new radar can be easily trained in a sustainable way.

The skills and knowledge of ATCOs and ATSEP vary a lot, depending on the countries but also on the specific professionals' experience and state in their individual learning paths.

Our experience that we always need to adapt our actual syllabus on the fly during our training. The good news is that this is easy with the NextGen pulse. It is a completely flexible radar lab with a real radar. And we provide lots of teaching support documents which will help the lecturer to adapt the training on his or her specific training group.

You find more pedagogical background and reasoning in the Comprehensive Training Manual.

For sample exercises please look at our NextGen 8 GHz Exercise Manual.

Our objective is to enable the lecturers and trainers for ICAO compliant training as defined in the docs for ATSEP and the ICAO Doc 10057 for ATSEP.

The SkyRadar NextGen 8 GHz Pulse aims to train radar technology, as defined be ICAO in the sections on surveillance. It can be used from the phase of qualification up to development training. Training supply and syllabus need to be always adapted to the specific teaching objectives. 

The fact that the NextGen Pulse can be accessed remotely (managed by the teacher) makes it also the perfect On-the-Job (OJT) Training tool e.g., in the Unit Training section.

Having said that the Pulse radar is a tool for radar training, it cannot be the only tool for ATSEP and ATCO qualification. Another important part in the ICAO based qualification is Aerodrome, Approach and En-Route Training. For that we offer the simulator for TWR, APP, ACC and GND for ATSEP and ATCO.

For the navigation parts we offer the NavAids Simulator

 

The structure of this document

Hereafter we suggest a curriculum in an overview form. In brackets we define documentation and handouts to support each topic. If not hyperlinked when first introduced, the documents are of limited access to SkyRadar customers and partners (please contact us for samples). The Annex refers to related document names.

If you are an interested lecturer from an ATC-academy or university, please contact us for more details and samples.

Also, if interested in curriculum information about Artificial Intelligence related to radar technology or other contents, please contact us for related information.


Introduction

* Basic Principle of Operation (Radar  Basics  1.1)        

* Primary Radars in Air Traffic Control (Radar Basics 1.4 )

* Classification  of  Radar  Sets (Radar  Basics  1.6)

 

Basics with the Pulse Radar 

* Pulsed Radars (Pulse and PSR Manual)

* A-Scope (Pulse & PSR Manual, FreeScopes ManualPulse and PSR Training Exercise Manual)

* B-Scope (PSR Manual, FreeScopes Manual, Pulse & PSR Base Unit Training Exercise Manual )

* Plan Position Indicator (PPI) (Pulse & PSR Manual, FreeScopes Manual, Pulse & PSR Base Unit, Training Exercise Manual )

* Range resolution (Pulse & PSR Base Unit Training Exercise Manual )

* Sensitivity Time Control STC (Pulse & PSR Base Unit Training Exercise Manual )

* Effect of Noise (Pulse & PSR Base Unit Training Exercise Manual )

* Threshold function and C-FAR (Pulse & PSR Base Unit Training Exercise Manual )

* Radar Signal Processing (Radar Basic 2.4.1-2)

* IQ Signal Processing

* Radar  Receiver (Radar  Basics  2.3.1)

* Filters (Radar  Basics  2.3.3)

* Sensibility

* Radar Equation (Radar Basics 1.2)

* Time/Distance Relation

* Radar Cross Section (Radar Basics 1.3)

* Spectrum Analysis (Power Spectral Density Analysis)

 

Theory and Practice applied

* Radar  Antenna and Tracking Antenna (Radar  Basics  2.1.1-2)

* Antenna Diagram        

* Radar  Transmitter (Radar  Basics  2.2.1)

* Concept  of  Coherence (Radar  Basics  2.2.2)

 

Annex

Documentation

 

Radar  Basics  1.0.docx        History  of  Radar  .........................................................          1

Radar  Basics  1.1.docx        Basic  principle  of  operation  ......................................          2

Radar  Basics  1.2.docx        Radar  Equation .............................................................          3

Radar  Basics  1.3.docx        Radar  Cross  Section ...................................................          4

Radar  Basics  1.4.docx        Primary  Radar  in  Air  Traffic  Management  ................          5

Radar  Basics  1.5.docx        OverTheHorizon  Radars ...........................................          6

Radar  Basics  1.6.docx        Classification  of  Radar  Sets  ......................................          7

Radar  Basics  2.1.1.docx        Radar  Antenna  ..........................................................          8

Radar  Basics  2.1.2.docx        Tracking  Radar  Antenna ...........................................          9

Radar  Basics  2.1.3.docx        Radar  Antenna  with  Synthetic  Aperture ................         10

Radar  Basics  2.2.1.docx        Radar  Transmitter .....................................................         11

Radar  Basics  2.2.2.docx        Concept  of  Coherence............................................          12

Radar  Basics  2.2.3.docx        Intrapulse  Modulation  ..............................................         13

Radar  Basics  2.3.1.docx        Radar  Receiver  ........................................................         14

Radar  Basics  2.3.2.docx        Superheterodyne  Principle  ......................................         15

Radar  Basics  2.3.3.docx        Matched  Filter  /Matched  Receiver .........................         16

Radar  Basics  2.4.1.docx        Radar  Signal  Processing ........................................          17

Radar  Basics  2.4.2.docx        Digital  Signal  Processing .........................................         18

Radar  Basics  2.4.3.docx        Local  Tracking ..........................................................         19

Radar  Basics  2.5.1.docx        Radar  Displays .........................................................         20

Radar  Basics  2.5.2.docx        Plan  Position  Indicator ............................................         21

Radar  Basics  3.1.docx        Electronic  War .............................................................         22

Radar  Basics  4.1.docx        Practical  Training .........................................................         23