The Sky-Scanner System for Air Traffic Management: Test sessions and statistical analysis

Air Traffic Management (ATM) is traditionally performed by means of radar systems, but new detection and ranging systems based on LIDAR (LIgth Detection And Ranging systems) are emerging as a critical design trend and yielding to new generation ATM paradigms. The main goal of the designers of the system under discussion was to develop a novel laser tracking technology (SKY-Scanner System) that could allow the detection and tracking of aircrafts up to at least 6 nautical miles. Moreover, the purpose was also the definition of techniques, protocols, numerical prediction tools and devices specifically designed for the analysis of the laser system performances in Air Traffic Control applications. The ultimate purpose was to define a new generation ATM paradigm that is based on radar and laser tracking data fusion, as well as on ground to air laser communications. This paper reports the test session that has been run on a prototype of the laser range finder, in order to find accuracy and possible dependence of measurement errors on temperature, humidity, distance and position of the target. The results show that high humidity and temperature can affect the accuracy of the measurements. © 2010 IEEE.