Applications of a Surveillance Database and Server - An Example of Positive Cost-Benefit for Networking Surveillance Data

摘要

To streamline daily U.S. Air Force (USAF) operations and to maintain their mission in the face of severe manpower reductions, the 84th Radar Evaluation Squadron (84 RADES) and Sensis Corporation jointly developed a surveillance database and server system capable of monitoring and analyzing the performance of over 200 en route and terminal radars dispersed across the United States. Historically, the radar monitoring process was a mix of manual and semi-automated tasks and thus manpower intensive. The RADES decided to fully automate the process by centralizing the data and building a computer system capable of processing that data in real-time. To centralize the data, the outputs of every long-range radar, tethered aerostat and selected short range radars are tapped at the four Air Defense Sectors (ADS) and the Hawaiian Regional Air Operations Center (RAOC) and fed via an Internet Protocol (IP) connection to Hill Air Force Base (AFB) near Salt Lake City, Utah. There at Hill AFB, the 84 RADES/Sensis system continually records and processes the radar data producing real-time metrics on the performance of the data sensors. USAF analysts, engineers, maintainers, and operators with appropriate access can view and customize the results of the processing using a standard web browser. Through continuous monitoring and analysis, the system transforms the radar data into critically useful information that helps to solve the problem of radar evaluation.