Analysis of surveillance position error for airfield detection

Purpose The surveillance equipment is one of the most important parts for current air traffic control systems. It provides aircraft position and other relevant information including flight parameters. However, the existing surveillance equipment has certain position errors between true and detected positions. Operators must understand and account for the characteristics on magnitude and frequency of the position errors in the surveillance systems because these errors can influence the safety of aircraft operation. This study aims to develop the simulation model for analysis of these surveillance position errors to improve the safety of aircrafts in airports. Design/methodology/approach This study investigates the characterization of the position errors observed in airport surface detection equipment of an airport ground surveillance system and proposes a practical method to numerically reproduce the characteristics of the errors. Findings The proposed approach represents position errors more accurately than an alternative simple approach. This study also discusses the application of the computational results in a microscopic simulation modeling environment. Practical implications The surveillance error is analyzed from the radar trajectory data, and a random generator is configured to implement these data. These data are used in the air transportation simulation through an application programing interface, which can be applied to the aircraft trajectory data in the simulation. Subsequently, additionally built environment data are used in the actual simulation to obtain the results from the simulation engine. Originality/value The presented surveillance error analysis and simulation with its implementation plan are expected to be useful for air transportation safety simulations.