Bright Radar Indicator Terminal Equipment (BRITE) provides radar capabilities to towers, a system with tremendous benefits for both pilots and controllers. Unlike traditional radar systems, BRITE is similar to a television screen in that it can be seen in daylight. BRITE was so successful that the FAA has installed the new systems in towers, and even in some TRACONs. In fact, the invention of BRITE was so revolutionary that it launched a new type of air traffic facility . the TRACAB, which is a radar approach control facility located in the tower cab of the primary airport, as opposed to a separate room.
In the many facilities without BRITE, the controllers use strictly visual means to find and sequence traffic. Towers that do have BRITE may have one of several different types. Some have only a very crude display that gives a fuzzy picture of blips on a field of green, perhaps with the capability of displaying an extra slash on transponder-equipped targets and a larger slash when a pilot hits the ident button. Next in sophistication are BRITEs that have alphanumeric displays of various types, ranging from transponder codes and altitude to the newest version, the DBRITE (digital BRITE). A computer takes all the data from the primary radar, the secondary radar (transponder information), and generates the alphanumeric data. DBRITE digitizes the image, and then sends it all, in TV format, to a square display in the tower that provides an excellent presentation, regardless of how bright the ambient light.
One of the most limiting factors in the use of the BRITE is in the basic idea behind the use of radar in the tower. The radar service provided by a tower controller is not, nor was it ever intended to be, the same thing as radar service provided by an approach control or Center. The primary duty of tower controllers is to separate airplanes operating on runways, which means controllers spend most of their time looking out the window, not staring at a radar scope.
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