📢 This glossary was created to be a dynamic version of the Pilot/Controller Glossary published by the FAA. Because the FAA now maintains its own dynamic version of the Pilot/Controller Glossary, this version is no longer updated.
Term:
RADAR
Meaning:
A device that provides information on range, azimuth, and/or elevation of objects by measuring the time interval between transmission and reception of directional radio pulses and correlating the angular orientation of the radiated antenna beam or beams in azimuth and/or elevation.
Primary Radar- A radar system in which a minute portion of a radio pulse transmitted from a site is reflected by an object and then received back at that site for processing and display at an air traffic control facility.
Secondary Radar/Radar Beacon (ATCRBS)- A radar system in which the object to be detected is fitted with cooperative equipment in the form of a radio receiver/transmitter (transponder). Radar pulses transmitted from the searching transmitter/receiver (interrogator) site are received in the cooperative equipment and used to trigger a distinctive transmission from the transponder. This reply transmission, rather than a reflected signal, is then received back at the transmitter/receiver site for processing and display at an air traffic control facility.