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(IVAR) - Final Report - Strategic Environmental Research and ...

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few gulls, the radar did not provide us this information on the DRP display. Even if all<br />

three radar displays were being monitored simultaneously, it’s extremely important to<br />

underst<strong>and</strong> the premise under which we were conducting the survey: the ability of avian<br />

radars to detect <strong>and</strong> track birds is a function of where the bird is in relation to the energy<br />

of the radar beam at that time. Given the antennas have a fixed coverage volume, many<br />

of these birds may have been outside the zone of detection. We were not able to check<br />

either of the AR2 radars to determine if they were detecting the birds we were watching.<br />

Utility of Technology in Airport Operations<br />

5. Please rate the following where 1=poor, 2=fair, 3=good, 4=very good, <strong>and</strong> 5= excellent.<br />

The assigned numerical ratings were for the DRP unless specified otherwise:<br />

Ease of Implementation 4<br />

Ease of Use 3<br />

Timeliness 3<br />

General Utility 3<br />

Demonstrated validity of display 4<br />

Reliability 4<br />

Please provide specific comments to support or exp<strong>and</strong> your rating.<br />

Ease of Implementation - An important component of implementing a remote radar<br />

display was working with the Port’s Informational Technology department to acquire<br />

permissions to install <strong>and</strong> use VPN <strong>and</strong> VNC software to remotely access the airports<br />

internal computer network <strong>and</strong> the AR1 host computer operating in the midfield trailer.<br />

Except for the USB wireless device becoming dysfunctional itself, once a connection was<br />

established there were no serious hardware or software issues the prevented us from<br />

maintaining communication to the AR1 remotely. Future laptops used for displaying<br />

targets remotely might consider the use of an internal rather than an external USB<br />

wireless device to better protect this hardware from damage when being used an<br />

environment where the PC may be moved frequently.<br />

Ease of Use – Both the remote DRP <strong>and</strong> GEC displays were used <strong>and</strong> compared. While<br />

the GEC was specifically designed for a high level of user satisfaction, the purpose of the<br />

DRP software was for system monitoring <strong>and</strong> maintenance. Nonetheless, most of our<br />

time was spent using the DRP display because of its current capabilities of presenting the<br />

plots <strong>and</strong> tracks with up to 120 of the previous detections commingled in one display.<br />

Timeliness – To determine display latency, multiple trails were conducted with both the<br />

remote DRP <strong>and</strong> the GEC displays (Table E-1). Results consistently indicated a more<br />

rapid update rate <strong>and</strong> response times for the DRP than the GEC that was tasked with first<br />

processing DRP data from all three radars before being displayed. For the fly passing<br />

trials, the latency from when the vehicle passed a given point on the airfield to when it<br />

actually passed the displayed point was equivalent to the update rate (screen refresh rate).<br />

350

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