Remote Tower Sensor System
Yuri Gawdiak, Richard Papasin, Chris Leidich, David Maluf, Kevin Bass, Hoan Mai, Chris Berg, Peter Tran
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The Remote Tower Sensor System (RTSS) is a proof-of-concept prototype being developed by Ames Research Center in collaboration with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Once fully installed, the system will greatly help San Francisco International Airport (SFO) improve predictions of landing conditions during weather transition periods by providing a better understanding of the formation and dissipation of clouds, weather, and wind currents in and around the airport approach zone. The project utilizes live video that is accessible over a secure Internet site. The camera system employs advanced image processing technologies to help controllers and forecasters understand and predict critical weather situations. RTSS is leveraging off the existing Airport Approach Zone Camera System (AAZCS) project of real-time weather observations at SFO.
In FY00 the RTSS team set up a portable remote tower sensor test bed on the roof of building 269 at Ames (see fig. 1). Once testing is completed, this portable remote tower will be deployed at Half Moon Bay Airport as the first "virtual tower system" that will integrate real-time airport data in support of operations at airports without towers. Some of the key components consist of an ultrasonic wind sensor, air-temperature and relative humidity sensor, barometric pressure sensor, solar panels, wireless Ethernet, PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) motion camera, web access and logging.
On 3 March 2000 digital cameras were brought on-line at the Seattle/Tacoma (SEATAC) Tower, permitting for the first time, real-time monitoring of airport operations/weather for the tower management and TRACON.
A third part of the system came into being in June 2000 when the RTSS team set up an infrared camera test bed at SFO to measure and quantify weather-related visibility owing to low-cloud dissipation and fog surrounding the airport. The 4-day test consisted of installing the forward-looking infrared (FLIR) Alpha Indigo infrared camera system and a dual-mode visible/infrared camera onto the lower portion of the air-traffic control (ATC) tower, collecting and recording high-resolution video feeds from the cameras, and analyzing the data. RTSS can be utilized at both airports without towers as well as at major airport hubs for synthetic vision augmentation or local as well as remote low/zero visibility operations.
Point of Contact: Yuri Gawdiak
(650) 604-4765
ygawdiak@mail.arc.nasa.gov
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Fig 1. The Portable Remote Tower Sensor Test Bed.
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