| Name: | Santosh Koli |
| Affiliation: | Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Balloon Facility |
| Conference ID : | ASI2023_622 |
| Title : | Significance of air safety devices viz. ATC-Transponder and Radio Beacon, and its functional automation on Scientific payloads |
| Authors : | Santosh K. Koli¹, B.V.N. Kapardhi¹, T.V. Rao¹, D. Anand¹, B. Suneel Kumar¹ and Devendra K. Ojha²
¹Balloon Facility, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), ECIL Post 5, Hyderabad, Telangana - 500 06, India
²Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Colaba, Mumbai - 400 005, India
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| Mode of Presentation: | Poster |
| Abstract Category : | Instrumentation and Techniques |
| Abstract : | The TIFR Balloon Facility is a one-of-a-kind facility that provides comprehensive scientific ballooning solutions for high altitude scientific research studies. Due to safety concerns, scientific balloons are subject to restrictions and regularizations by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and are categorized as Unmanned Free Balloons (UFB) globally. All countries with their own civil aviation agencies, such as Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in India, are required to abide by ICAO guidelines in order to uphold the rules and advisories. The air safety sub-system, in particular the ATC-Transponder (XPDR), a standard device for Air Traffic Controller (ATC) communication for identifying and maneuvering the air traffic is typically operated in the air corridor during ascending from the ground to approximately 15 km of altitude and during descending post experiment from approximately 15 km altitude to ground. However, no XPDR suitable for high altitude ballooning is currently available but Automatic Depended Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) as an additional extended feature of modern era, is a crucial device’s function for UFBs.
A Radio beacon is another device used as a safety measure as stipulated by civil aviation authorities of India. The beacon transmits the signal 'TFR' in Morse Code to forewarn approaching aircraft of the descending payload in space. It operates only during descent from about 15 km by deploying 82 meters long monopole antenna.
Both these device’s functions are automated through developed electronics and additionally the XPDR can be controlled by tele-command interface in some of the experiments. The significance of these devices will be presented in detail.
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