NextGen Surveillance and Weather Radar Capability - NOAA

Service Shortfalls
• Inefficiencies associated with aging equipment and disparate infrastructure leading to
increasing O&M costs and a large footprint leading to high O&M costs
• Inability to independently determine aircraft altitude from terminal aircraft surveillance
• Limited ability to detect gust fronts and microbursts (especially dry microbursts) at
under-protected airports
• Inability to collect weather data that falls into radar coverage gaps
• Limited ability to detect and track Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAV) and other small
aircraft
• Limited ability to detect and track aircraft and weather in the presence of ground
clutter, such as wind farm interference
• Inability to effectively discriminate between different types of airborne targets (aircraft,
UAVs, birds, balloons, hang gliders, etc.)
• Insufficient temporal and spatial resolution of weather data to meet emerging NextGen
weather requirements
• Inability to effectively discriminate between different types of hydrometeors (rain, ice,
snow, hail, etc.)
Shortfalls will be assess by the Air Traffic Organization and considered in
Concept and Requirements Definition