Introduction

Sky Converter is a Mode-S & Mode-A/C radar front-end processor.

It receives input data from upstream system, such as PSR, SSR or ASR; modifies and/or converts radar data according to predefined rules; and then sends output data to downstream systems.

Sky Converter was original developed to integrate new Mode-S radar into existing ATM systems which doesn’t supports Mode-S formats, but it has become a general purpose radar front-end processor and can be used in different scenarios.

Input Message

Sky Converter is capable to receive and process the following types of radar messages.

Different UAPs can be detected and used for decoding.

Modification

Received radar data is sent to an internal pipeline for modification.

In current version of Sky Converter, following sub-modifiers has been implemented.

• SAC/SIC modifier

  Change SAC/SIC value in data record to a new one.

  This can be used to fix incorrect SAC/SIC in original radar without having to change settings in radar.

  It is also useful when integrating both original data and modified data into a same downstream system.

• Timestamp modifier

  Change timestamp in data record to current UTC time.

  This is useful when injecting recorded data into a system for processing.

• Fake distress squawk supression

  Detect fake distress squawk in data stream and change it back to normal code or mark it to garbled.

  This is used to detect and supress fake distress squawk from some Selex radars, which can cause unnecessary fake hijack, communication fail and emergency alerts in ATM system.

Conversion

According to configuraiotn, radar data may also be converted to other categories.

Sky Converter offers different options converting different category.

Different UAPs can be used during conversion.

Output Mode-A/C Message

Sky Converter outputs following types of radar messages.

It can also forward unknow categories as is.