What is a radar "ATR box"

Question

Hi All,

I am studying for my FCC ship radar endorsement, and am frequently encountering the term 'ATR box'. can anyone tell me what ATR stands for and exactly what this device does? Thanks in advance :-)

Russ

Answer 1

Probably:  Air Transport Radio, a size standard for aircraft electronics boxes.  For the traffic control tower to track incoming planes there has to be a radio transponder on the aircraft, all airplanes carry them.  Without the ATR the radar signal for the airplane won't show up on the screen, there is no identifying information tagged to it and the computer will assume it is not an airplane.

Civilian aircraft almost never carry their own radar, it is too expensive.  Air traffic control towers only track incoming landing planes, they avoid excessive ground clutter, possible UFOs (which could be anything including a California Condor), and other false radar blips by interrogating the plane's ATR.  This is how they get the flight number to appear on the radar screen next to the blip and how they keep the radar screen clean of junk.

Civilian planes could carry their own radar, but unlike a police officers radar gun the radar set has to have many miles of range and so it needs to be more like a military radar set and it requires the power of a military radar, which means more costs.

According to Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATR_(disamb...

The initials ATR can mean several things, Including

Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International

Air Transport Radio, a size standard for aircraft electronics boxes

Automatic Target Recognition, the ability for an algorithm to recognize targets based on data obtained from sensors, which would only be on a fighter jet.

This article mentions one (highlighted in yellow):  http://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:w5-l...

According to Honeywell Abbreviation &

Acronym Dictionary:  http://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:UKz4...

ATR is an air transport radio

"ATR - Air Transport Radio: ARINC form-factor/standard case dimensions; 1 ATR = 8 MCU (also,

Austin Trumbull Radio standard design"

Acronyms.com has a lot more definitions:  http://www.all-acronyms.com/ATR

However the Probertency Encyclopedia:  http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/N1H....

ATR is an abbreviation for Air Transport Radio

ATR is an abbreviation for Advanced Tactical Radar; probably only in a military jet since commercial planes rarely carry radar sets.

ATR is an abbreviation for Aided Target Recognition which would only be in a fighter

ATR is an abbreviation for Air Transport Rack; which could be in any large airplane

ATR is an abbreviation for Anti-Tactical Radar; which is a radar jammer and would only be found in a military plane.

According to http://www.military.cz/accessories/abbre...

ATR is an Air Transport Radio.

Answer 2

ATR stands for Automatic Target Recognition, and the ATR Box is the device that has all the relevant electronics inside.

Read more about it on  http://www.ifp.uiuc.edu/~smherman/darpa/