Zagreb Airport gets new runway surveillance system

NEWS FLASH

Croatia Control has completed the installation of an Advanced – Surface Movement Guidance & Control System (A-SMGCS) at Zagreb Airport. It will allow air traffic controllers at the airport to guide aircraft in low visibility conditions by relying on information displayed via A-SMGCS. "When the recent airport expansion and new traffic flows are taken into account, as well as the continued growth in traffic, the complexity of airport operations, and simultaneous military and civil operations, the system plays a great role in raising the situational awareness of air traffic controllers to ensure adequate safety levels at Zagreb Airport in all weather conditions", Croatia Control said in a statement. The project's implementation took three years and is valued at 4.4 million euros. Some 85% was co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union.

The system was produced and delivered by Saab. A-SMGCS is a state-of-the-art, technologically advanced solution, enabling traffic surveillance and control functions at Zagreb Airport. It includes a primary radar (SMR) and a multilateration system (MLAT). The SMR is a relatively low-power and short-range radar used to detect all aircraft, vehicles, and other objects on the airport's surface with an important safety role, since it detects all traffic, no matter if the vehicles are equipped with a transponder or not. On the other hand, the MLAT system relies on aircraft and vehicle equipment, i.e. transponders which have to be properly used and fully operational. Unlike the SMR, the MLAT system provides additional information on aircraft identification, which is contained in the emitted transponder signal. This system consists of multiple receivers, spatially distributed around the runway, receiving signals emitted by an aircraft. Based on those signals, and the time difference between receiving them, a data processing system calculates the precise position of the aircraft.