AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL COMPUTER SIMULATION

THIS PROPOSAL DEALS WITH THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPUTER SIMULATION OF A GENERALIZED AIR-TRAFFIC CONTROL RADAR. IT INCLUDES THE ABILITY TO REALISTICALLY SIMULATE RADAR RETURNSFROM GROUND CLUTTER AND VARIOUS KINDS OF HAZARDOUS WEATHER. THE SIMULATION WILL ALSO REPRESENT THE EFFECT OF CLUTTER ANDWEATHER RETURN LEAKAGE THROUGH THE RADAR'S ANGLE AND RANGE SIDELOBES. THE PROPOSED SIMULATION WILL ALLOW THE RADAR SYSTEMS ENGINEER TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT OF CHANGING RADAR PARAMETERS SUCH AS FREQUENCY, PRF, WAVEFORM, ANTENNA PATTERN, BEAMWIDTH, ETC. ON THE PERFORMANCE OF THE RADAR IN SIMULTANEOUSLY TRACKING AIRCRAFT AND AUTOMATICALLY IDENTIFYING HAZARDOUS WEATHER EVENTS UNDER A VARIETY OF GROUND CLUTTER AND WEATHER OPERATING ENVIRONMENTS. THIS SIMULATION WILL ALSO ALLOW THE SYSTEMS ENGINEER TO EVALUATE THE PERFORMANCE OF NEW SIGNAL PROCESSING TECHNIQUES AND AUTOMATIC HAZARDOUS WEATHER EVENT DETECTION ALGORITHMS UNDERREALISTIC, BUT CONTROLLED AND REPEATABLE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS.