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Supporting the deployment of the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR)

Published in:
Lincoln Laboratory Journal, Vol. 7, No. 2, Fall 1994, pp. 379-398.

Summary

The Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) program was initiated in the mid-1 980s to develop a reliable automated Doppler-radar-based system for detecting weather hazards in the airport terminal area and for providing warnings that will help pilots avoid these hazards when landing and departing. This article describes refinements made to the TDWR system since 1988, based on subsequent Lincoln Laboratory testing in Kansas City, Missouri, and Orlando, Florida. During that time, Lincoln Laboratory developed new capabilities for the system such as the integration of warnings from TDWR and the Low Level Wind Shear Alert System (LLWAS). Extensive testing with the Lincoln Laboratory TDWR testbed system has reconfirmed the safety benefits of TDWR.
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Summary

The Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) program was initiated in the mid-1 980s to develop a reliable automated Doppler-radar-based system for detecting weather hazards in the airport terminal area and for providing warnings that will help pilots avoid these hazards when landing and departing. This article describes refinements made to...

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Status of the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar with deployment underway

Published in:
Proc. Fifth Int. Conf. on Aviation Weather Systems, 2-6 August 1993, pp. 32-34.

Summary

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiated the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) program in the mid-1980's in response to the need for improved real-time hazardous weather (especially low-altitude wind shear) surveillance in the terminal area (Turnbull, et al., 1989). The initial focus for the TDWR was to provide reliable, fully automated Doppler radar detection of microbursts and gust fronts and 20-minute warning of wind shifts which could effect runway usage. Subsequent operational demonstrations have shown that the overall terminal situational awareness provided by the TDWR color Geographical Situation Display (GSD) depiction of wind shear locations, weather reflectivity and storm motion also yields substantial improvements in terminal operations efficiency for air traffic managers and for airlines. In this paper, we will describe the current status and deployment strategy for the operational systems and recent results from the extensive testing of the radar system concept and of the weather information dissemination approach.
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Summary

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initiated the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) program in the mid-1980's in response to the need for improved real-time hazardous weather (especially low-altitude wind shear) surveillance in the terminal area (Turnbull, et al., 1989). The initial focus for the TDWR was to provide reliable, fully...

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Terminal Doppler Weather Radar test bed operation, Orlando, January - June 1990

Published in:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Report ATC-180

Summary

This semiannual report for the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar program, sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), covers the period from 1 January 1990 through 30 June 1990. The principal activity of this period was the transport and reassembly of the FL-2 weather radar test site from Kansas City, MO to Orlando, FL and the change of radar frequency from S-band used in Kansas City to C-band for Orlando operations. Site operations to prepare the FL-2C radar site for summer testing began in January and continued through May, when testing began. This report describes the RF hardware, the data collection, the computer systems at site, and the networks between Orlando, FL and Lexington, MA. Also included are discussions of the microburst and gust front algorithm development, data collection, display terminals, and training for Air Traffic Control (ATC) supervisors and controllers.
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Summary

This semiannual report for the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar program, sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), covers the period from 1 January 1990 through 30 June 1990. The principal activity of this period was the transport and reassembly of the FL-2 weather radar test site from Kansas City, MO...

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Terminal Doppler Weather Radar operational test and evaluation Orlando 1990

Published in:
MIT Lincoln Laboratory Report ATC-179

Summary

Lincoln Laboratory conducted an evaluation for hte Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) system in Orlando, Florida during the cummer of 1990. In previous years, evaluations have been conducted at airports in Kansas City, MO (1989) and Denver, CO (1988). Since the testing at the Kansas City International Airport, the radar was modified to operate in C-band, which is the intended frequency band for the production TDWR systems. The objectives of the 1990 evaluation period were to evaluate TDWR system performance in detecting low-altitude wind shear, specifically microbursts and gust fronts, at the Orlando International Airport and in the surrounding area; to refine the system's wind shear detection capabilities; and to evaluate elements of the system developed by the contractor, which were new for this C-band system and therefore not available for evaluation in previous years. Some performance comparisons are made among results from the vastly different weather environments of Denver, Kansas City, and Orlando. The report discusses and presents statistics for the performance of the system in detecting and predicting microbursts and gust fronts. A significant use of the prediction capability is its potential use for air traffic control (ATC) personnel to plan aitport operations when hazardous weather is predicted. Issues such as low-velocity ground clutter (from tree leaves, road traffic, and dense urban areas) that affect prediction performance are discussed, along with possible software modifications to account for them. FInally, the ATC personnel and pilots who took part in the evaluation provide the users' perspectives on the usefulness of the system's capabilities.
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Summary

Lincoln Laboratory conducted an evaluation for hte Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) system in Orlando, Florida during the cummer of 1990. In previous years, evaluations have been conducted at airports in Kansas City, MO (1989) and Denver, CO (1988). Since the testing at the Kansas City...

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