QinetiQ have issued a press release which states the advantages of the Tarsier system during snow conditions (clearly in response to the recent UK weather). They mention runway lights being dislodged by snow ploughs, and state how the elevated position of the Tarsier sensors give them an advantage, these statements are clearly targeted at the FODetect system which is located on runway lights.
There is an image included in the press release, but it’s just a generic image of some snow being cleared from a runway. Given that the Tarsier installation at Vancouver includes cameras, it would have been useful to see some actual images taken with these cameras of FOD detected during snow conditions.
There is also no mention of any reduction in the detection performance of the Tarsier radar during snow, if the radar can detect snow on the ground, then clearly its performance must degrade due to the snowfall between the radar and the runway surface. FODetect would also suffer from this, but the FODetect system has the advantage that it is located much closer to any potential FOD, and therefore any reduction in detection performance would be minimised. (more…)
