Narrative:

As I took the position; I observed numerous arrivals inbound on the tsd plus strips and tab showing several departures divided between ZZZ; ZZZ1 and ZZZ2. Additionally; there were icing conditions in the immediate area requiring added transmissions to pass along and take pilot reports. I advised the supervisor and said we should have another radar position opened. We changed over to the new fusion radar within the last couple of weeks and it is much more difficult radar to work with. With fsl single sensor stars you have an obvious perception of how fast targets are moving across the screen and with a quick scan of the radar can easily assess where to sequence aircraft and when to apply speed control. With fusion radar you lose this capability. All targets update every second and it gives the appearance to the eye that jets are moving slower and the eye doesn't easily discern between their movement and that of a slower aircraft like a cessna. This forces you to have to pay more attention to reading the tag to ascertain their speeds rather than the quicker method of an overview of the tag moving across the screen. It is especially time consuming when working higher volumes of traffic; so I felt a second scope would be a good idea. I ended up working the busy half hour session by myself. Leading the rush was a king air 200 from the south. I asked him to keep his speed maximized as there were numerous jets coming in and there was a commercial jet behind him and a 737-800 from east that was much faster. As king air 200 was getting within 20 NM he started slowing and said he'd be around 180 KTS. The 737-800 was faster and I had started to widen him out and reduced him to 210; but with fusion radar the king air 200 was really looking slow and it looked like the 737-800 could make the slot ahead of the king air; so turned him back toward the slot and let him keep the 210 speed. Unfortunately the way fusion depicts the radar it was hard to tell how fast he was turning and at the very end the two aircraft were coming together faster than initially appeared. So I turned the king air out to west; but ended up with 2.08 NM between them. Controllers from another facility were visiting and were complaining of the same problems with fusion and that they didn't like it either. While fusion does have the advantage of being able to work larger areas of airspace that cover 2 ASR sites; it's method of updating targets is not beneficial in busier traffic for working aircraft using the part of the brain that quickly correlates visual movement of the targets. When using fusion if you put the 'headlight' (multifunction right) on an aircraft and give it a turn the headlight stays stationary for most of the turn then leaps at the end to the aircraft a new heading as opposed to a more fluid motion in single sensor. Recommendation; it is my opinion that fusion is an inferior radar to single sensor fsl on the ASR-9 for working final approach. While fusion may be fine for working larger areas of space; like combining west sector with [another] sector; it is not optimal for running a busy final. I recommend that single site ASR-9 fsl radar be used as the primary radar choice whenever the radar site is available and fusion used as a backup and for working with combined sectors of [one TRACON] and radar west where coverage is required from two separate radar sites to span the airspace

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controllers described a loss of separation event claiming the Fusion RADAR equipment was one causal factor.

Narrative: As I took the position; I observed numerous arrivals inbound on the TSD plus strips and tab showing several departures divided between ZZZ; ZZZ1 and ZZZ2. Additionally; there were icing conditions in the immediate area requiring added transmissions to pass along and take pilot reports. I advised the Supervisor and said we should have another RADAR position opened. We changed over to the new Fusion RADAR within the last couple of weeks and it is much more difficult RADAR to work with. With FSL single sensor STARS you have an obvious perception of how fast targets are moving across the screen and with a quick scan of the RADAR can easily assess where to sequence aircraft and when to apply speed control. With Fusion RADAR you lose this capability. All targets update every second and it gives the appearance to the eye that jets are moving slower and the eye doesn't easily discern between their movement and that of a slower aircraft like a Cessna. This forces you to have to pay more attention to reading the tag to ascertain their speeds rather than the quicker method of an overview of the tag moving across the screen. It is especially time consuming when working higher volumes of traffic; so I felt a second scope would be a good idea. I ended up working the busy half hour session by myself. Leading the rush was a King Air 200 from the South. I asked him to keep his speed maximized as there were numerous jets coming in and there was a commercial jet behind him and a 737-800 from east that was much faster. As King Air 200 was getting within 20 NM he started slowing and said he'd be around 180 KTS. The 737-800 was faster and I had started to widen him out and reduced him to 210; but with Fusion RADAR the King Air 200 was really looking slow and it looked like the 737-800 could make the slot ahead of the King Air; so turned him back toward the slot and let him keep the 210 speed. Unfortunately the way fusion depicts the RADAR it was hard to tell how fast he was turning and at the very end the two aircraft were coming together faster than initially appeared. So I turned the King Air out to west; but ended up with 2.08 NM between them. Controllers from another facility were visiting and were complaining of the same problems with Fusion and that they didn't like it either. While Fusion does have the advantage of being able to work larger areas of airspace that cover 2 ASR sites; it's method of updating targets is not beneficial in busier traffic for working aircraft using the part of the brain that quickly correlates visual movement of the targets. When using Fusion if you put the 'headlight' (multifunction R) on an aircraft and give it a turn the headlight stays stationary for most of the turn then leaps at the end to the aircraft a new heading as opposed to a more fluid motion in single sensor. Recommendation; it is my opinion that Fusion is an inferior RADAR to single sensor FSL on the ASR-9 for working final approach. While Fusion may be fine for working larger areas of space; like combining west sector with [another] sector; it is not optimal for running a busy final. I recommend that single site ASR-9 FSL RADAR be used as the primary RADAR choice whenever the RADAR site is available and Fusion used as a backup and for working with combined sectors of [one TRACON] and RADAR West where coverage is required from two separate RADAR sites to span the airspace

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.