Airport Surface Detection Equipment (ASDE)-3 Improvements Test and Evaluation.

The Airport Surface Detection Equipment ASDE-3 radar test bedat the Federal Aviation Administration FAA Technical Center was installed and evaluated in 1980. Resulting from these tests, it was noted that additional information was required prior to the issuance of the procurement specification. Specifically, the three objectives were 1 an investigation of anomalous elongation of target returns from F-106 aircraft 2 to determine if there is an improvement in system performance when oversized waveguide is installed in lieu of standard Ku band waveguide and 3 a comparison of linear vertical, linear horizontal, and right hand circular antenna feed polarizations with respect to clear weather target imaging performance. This report documents the evaluation conducted and the results of this evaluation. The results indicated that 1 the target elongation is generated by intermediate frequency IF amplifier saturation 2 oversize waveguide improves system performance and should be utilized for long radiofrequency RF runs and 3 linear polarization improves clear weather target imaging and should be provided to the controller as an option. Author