Afin d'assurer des informations supplémentaires concernant les causes, l'étendue et les effets de ce type de
phénomène, il serait souhaitable d'assurer des tracés de cibles supplémentaires from the horizontal plotting scope
of the Washington ARTC Center. It would also be desirable for all CAA air traffic control agencies which use radar
equipment to log the occurrence of such targets. Notes regarding the extent and motion characteristics of them,
together with their effects on the control of air traffic, would also be of value. It would be desirable to
correlate all these reports with official United States Weather Bureau records.
Should additional research regarding these phenomena be undertaken, close coordination with the local office of
the United States Weather Bureau is essential in order that observations can be made when conducive meteorological
conditions are expected.
It is believed that more complete evidence could be obtained through the use of more flexible radar equipment. A
tremendous asset in evaluating the nature of false targets would be the ability to track continuously a specific
target through use of a manual slewing control. It would then be desirable to examine this target closely on an
A-scope radar presentation. A number of commercially available synchroscopes are ideally suited for this purpose.
The echo could be enlarged on such a presentation to a width of one inch or more. Examination of the resulting trace
including such characteristics as steepness of rise and decay time, energy distribution, and fluctuations in
amplitude should make it possible to deduce a great deal regarding the source of the reflection.
Additional simultaneous observations of the phenomena on L-band and S-band radar equipment would be desirable,
The availability of aircraft which could be guided by radar to the area of the target or to the primary reflecting
area would also be advantageous. Additional information maybe obtained by equipping the aircraft with an
aero-psychograph as well as with suitable apparatus for measuring electrical charges in these areas.
When helicopter traffic becomes more prevalent, it may be desirable to provide the controller with some type of
radar accessory which can detect propeller modulation and which can give him the means to determine positively
whether an unidentified target is an aircraft or a reflection. It is recommended that this type of accessory be
studied in connection with the proposed evaluation program for the ASR-2 radar.