The Civil Aeronautics Administra-tion (CAA, 民航局) yesterday activated its new long-range radar installations at the north-easternmost and southernmost tips of the country, saying the new systems would strengthen aviation safety and enhance efficiency within Taiwan's air traffic control zone.
With the Canadian-supplied, NT$650 million radar systems operating, Taiwan can give the Taipei flight information region full radar coverage.
This comprehensive network will further consolidate the monitoring of flights within the nation's airspace for the purpose of national security, the CAA said.
Flight information regions worldwide are designated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to demarcate the jurisdictions of national aviation authorities with respect to air traffic control.
The more comprehensive radar service now fully covers the Taipei information region, which connects to and overlaps with those of Manila, Hong Kong and Naha in Japan.
The installation of the radar will make the radar network for civil aviation more effective, the CAA said. Previously the CAA had to rely on the military to obtain certain radar information for air traffic control.
"But data from military radar might not meet all our requirements," said Danny Chang (
"For example, civil aviation air traffic control attaches more importance to information regarding the situation at higher altitudes, while some military radar focus more on collecting information at ground level to prevent possible incursions," Chang said.
The two long-range radars placed at Shan Tiao Chiao (
They also provide the Taipei flight information region with a complete radar service.
The newly installed radar can detect aircraft up to 250 nautical miles away.
The CAA explained that previously air traffic control of an international flight passing the country and undetected by radar relied on radio contact between the pilot and air traffic controller. "The radar system now further ensures the full monitoring of a flight by radar, which benefits national aviation safety," the CAA said.
On the other hand, the accuracy of radar monitoring could help shorten the standard distance separating two aircraft in the area that was not covered by radar before. "Air traffic control by radio contact is less accurate than that by radar. The former relies only on information given by the pilot and estimation of the controller to pinpoint the location of the aircraft. So previously we had to keep more distance between flights entering our information region when it was not covered by radar," said George Lee (
It took the CAA six years to complete its long-range radar program and a further two years to test it. "The completion of the project took a while because of delays in acquiring land," Lee said.
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