Does aircraft weather radar detect traffic?

[Jonathan Goldsmith]

?

[Nark]

No.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

It's not made for that, it does not do it reliably, but it does. Aircraft having TCAS displays sharing the same screen as the weather radar will often see a small green target from the weather radar superimposed on the location of a TCAS target. On some aircraft with short TCAS ranges, the weather Radar will detect the target at a better range than the TCAS. The beam of the weather radar is narrow and one has to have the tilt at the right angle in order to spot the aircraft.

So yes, sort of, but as the previous poster stated, not really......

[boeingboy]

?????

No - it does not. At all.

[Meatservo]

Boeing-boy, isn't it possible that Gilles is correct? He says he has seen small radar returns overlaid on TCAS blips. I know weather radar can pick up icebergs and coastlines and even ships, so why not an aeroplane if it happened to be close enough and happened to be right along the path of the "beam"?

[Sidebar]

We routinely used the C-130 weather radar for IFR formation station keeping on other aircraft. With that model of radar, you could detect airborne targets. Sometimes you had trouble identifying the target, and then you'd do an egress procedure to reduce risk of collision. Some scary stuff sometimes!

[Meatservo]

Sounds like it!

[TTJJ]

Weather Radar most definitely can detect other aircraft, although it is sort of incidental to its main purpose. If your question is “can you see all the other aircraft on radar like ATC can?”, then no you can’t.

On B- 737-200’s without TCAS we used to routinely play with the tilt to paint traffic that Center gave us while IMC.

You use the 1 in 60 rule. If the traffic is 10 miles (+- = 60,000 ft) ahead of you and 1000 ft. below, you move your tilt down 1 degree. This will aim your beam 1000 feet low at that distance. It should find him easily.
As stated earlier, the target is painted as a green blob.

Strangely, just yesterday I used the radar on our Falcon 7X to do just that. I was looking for an aircraft ahead and below us on the same route whose TCAS target was wandering all over the screen.

It has been my experience that you can get them out to around 30 miles, although the “blob” is pretty small at that range.

Rather sadly, you can probably tell from me knowing the above that I lead a somewhat dull existence in the aircraft and that I am easily amused…

Interestingly, when you paint another aircraft many times it is beside the TCAS target and not inside the blue diamond. I suppose that proves why one cannot trust the position of a TCAS target enough to just turn to avoid it.

edited for spelling

[Lateralus]

I have seen it a few times on the 737NG paint traffic.

[PilotDAR]

A touch off topic, but I was flying a Bellanca Viking west toward Quebec City once, about 70 miles back. The controller asked me to look off to my right side a mile or so - did I see any birds? Yup, I did, a large flock of geese. His radar must be really something to pick up stealth birds 70 miles out!

[AuxBatOn]

A large flock of birds is not exactly stealth. I am pretty sure the RCS is pretty big. Not all radars are the same. PRF, frequency, modulation techniques will all have an impact on what will be seen and what kind of range from what aspect.

[slowstream]

?????

No - it does not. At all.

Actually just like Gilles stated, yes, sort of but not really.

I've has it demonstrated to me and used it myself on the A300 in Asia and yes it does work, somewhat

[ahramin]

I have picked up traffic on weather radar several times at ranges less than 20 miles.

[SAR_YQQ]

Weather RADAR can paint airplanes, mountains, boats, etc - whatever gets reflected gets shown.

[CID]

Don't count on it because weather radar is not optimized for detecting aircraft but in the right conditions it can. The older the radar the better the chances but on real old ones you won't have a TCAS target to verify.

Those old radars (and some newer ones) also processed transponder replies and signals from other nearby radars. They appeared just like they did on the older ATC screens. An arc. Two if you pressed ident.

You also may want to Google "running rabbits". Common when flying over a zone with high military activity.

Radar on military aircraft often have target tracking capability that can track other aircraft. Not so on civil aircraft. Except of course for the odd system that has a TGT alert mode but that just gives you indication that "something" is out there. Not very useful.

[vcollazo]

The radars on the A320 and the DC9 do a great job of picking up aircraft. You need to use high gain and proper tilt. Planes with large turbofan engines like the A320 and larger are easy to pick up especially from rear or front aspects.

[SRV]

It absolutely does...when 10 feet away and closing!

[Joe Blow Schmo]

?????

No - it does not. At all.

Sure it does. I see it all the time, as Gilles describes it.

[co-joe]

You can use it to paint ramp attendants and marshallers too.

Kidding that would be mean...

[Gear Jerker]

You can use it to paint ramp attendants and marshallers too.

Kidding that would be mean...

Paint them with radiation...

[Chuck Ellsworth]

For sure the older weather radars will if set with the proper gain and elevation.

They would terrain map also.

[TG]

I've heard that Police departments flying the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin discovered some time ago a new function with its Wx radar.
Triggering illegal radar detectors.
They "paint" the hwy, if they see a car braking for no apparent reason (sudden braking lights on, no car or obstacle in front) they will send a ground patrol on it for "investigation"

[Gilles Hudicourt]

http://db.tt/JRUb7qKr

Picture taken last night. A picture is worth a thousand words. I wish it was that easy with the CARs.

[ea306]

So not just Foreign Pilots on your Radar...lol

[Intentional Left Bank]

The radar in the 737NG reliably displays primary aircraft returns to 30 miles, less reliably beyond. With it bit of practice, it works well enough to be useful as a tool, particularly when tracking aircraft above or below our TCAS differential ceiling (+/-2800 ft) or keeping an eye out for non-transponder or non-code c aircraft.