Passenger air traffic has grown at an unprecedented rate during the last 5 years, a trend that is expected to continue in the future, with regions nearly doubling their passenger traffic by 2020.
Airport authorities and airlines are increasingly facing safety threats to passengers, crews and aircraft caused by
- a wide-range of foreign object debris (FOD) on runways and taxiways
- birds-aircraft strikes (BAS)
- the growing number of drones, in the airport and surrounding areas
Safety of Flight
Given the high impact of potential accidents and incidents – both in terms of damage to aircraft and fatal crashes with loss of lives – there is a continuous adoption of best practices and technologies to mitigate risks associated to the “safety of flight” (SOF).
Today, all airports rely on vehicle patrols for periodic inspections of runways, comprising several limitations, such as poor visibility and inconsistency of personnel performance (causing human errors).
Only a few airports have radar-based solutions due to their high price and limited features, resulting in a business case that is not sufficiently convincing to airports and airlines.
These solutions only cover the runway surfaces, thus presenting very limited bird detection capabilities.
Importantly, these solutions are not designed to detect drones – which pose a growing threat to the aviation industry.
FODBASA is the solution
Nordic Radar Solutions is developing an independent long-range system for multiple object detection and real-time threat alerts within the airport and its surroundings.
The system is based upon one or more radar sensors with high-resolution cameras and is marketed under the brand name Foreign Object Debris, Drone and Bird-Aircraft Strike Avoidance (FODBASA)
FODBASA unique selling points
How it works
The FODBASA system is an integrated sensor system solution consisting of a FODA sub-system and a BASA sub-system. Each sub-system in turn consist of one, two or multiple individual radars.
For optimal performance it is usually recommended to use two or more radars. Likewise, it is recommended to use two or more high-resolution cameras.
The FODA sub-system is based on Ka-band technology as a compromise between high resolution capability and reduced susceptibility to clutter and attenuation from precipitation but also price. The coverage range will typically be 3 km.
The BASA sub-system is based on X-band technology that provides enough resolution capability and at the same time all-weather performance. An extended coverage range up to approximately 10 km is provided. Two separate subsystems are responsible for coverage of a flat 360° horisontal sector and a vertical (elevation) corridor centered along the runways respectively.
Moreover, the FODA sub-system and a BASA sub-system can transfer complementary information in a way to warrant dual-band operation covering the critical runway surface zone.
The number of radar sites and their individual positions on the airfield are chosen as a compromise between overall costs, total coverage area, multi-static operation and complexity.