METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR RADAR TIME SENSOR

• US 20070159378A1
• Filed: 09/28/2006
• Published: 07/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Raytheon Company (Rtx Corporation)
• Inventors: Powers, Stanley, Danley, Brian, Hennin, Simon, Harding, Timothy, Stamm, Robert, Aten, Russell, Jagodnik, Anthony
• Granted Patent: US 7,616,149 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 342/29
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/91 for traffic control G01S13/93 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/003 Transmission of data between radar, sonar or lidar systems and remote stations
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/021 Auxiliary means for detecting or identifying radar signals or the like, e.g. radar jamming signals

Abstract

Methods and apparatus to detect and measure energy transmission or azimuth angle information from a radar system at one or more known or measured azimuth angles, determine, for each azimuth angle, the time corresponding to the center of the beam of the energy transmission, receive universal time information, tag the time measurement for each azimuth angle with the universal time information to provide a report, transmit the report to a radar automation system, and determine the radar measurement time for each target report at any azimuth angle from that radar.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

detecting energy transmission from a radar system;

determining an azimuth angle of the energy transmission;

receiving universal time information;

tagging the detected energy transmission with the universal time information to provide a report;

transmitting the report to a radar automation system.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the energy transmission includes an azimuth change pulse and an azimuth reference pulse.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the universal time information is provided by a global positioning system (GPS).

4. The method according to claim 1, further including determining absolute time for a range of azimuth locations for the radar system from the azimuth angle of the energy transmission and the universal time information based upon an azimuth scan rate.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the automation system includes an en route and terminal automation system.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detected energy transmission includes search radar illumination.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the detected energy transmission includes beacon interrogation.

8. The method according to claim 1, further including determining a radar beam center for the detected radar energy for tagging with the universal time information.

9. The method according to claim 1, using the report to define aircraft separation intervals.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the radar automation system includes a multilateration system having a plurality of remote units.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein the radar automation system includes an automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) system.

12. A radar measurement time sensor, comprising:

a radar detector interface to receive energy from a radar system;

a time interface to receive universal time information for association with the received radar energy information;

a processing module to associate the universal time information with the radar energy information and generate a report; and

a telecommunication interface to transmit the report to a remote system

13. The sensor according to claim 12, wherein the received radar energy includes an azimuth control pulse and an azimuth reference pulse.

14. The sensor according to claim 12, wherein the universal time information is provided by a GPS.

15. The sensor according to claim 12, wherein the remote system includes an automation system that defines aircraft separation intervals based upon the report.

16. A system, comprising:

a radar system;

a radar measurement time sensor to receive energy from the radar system from which azimuth information can be determined and to receive universal time information, the radar measurement time sensor including a processing module to provide a report containing azimuth and universal time information; and

an automation system to receive the report.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the received energy includes an azimuth control pulse and an azimuth reference pulse.

18. The system according to claim 16, wherein the automation system defines aircraft separation intervals based upon information in the report.