Final answer:
A student's question about identifying aircraft with SSR was accompanied by an unrelated reference to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, indicating a potential mix-up, as the latter is not applicable to the field of aviation surveillance.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question relates to the identification of aircraft using Secondary Surveillance Radar (SSR), which is an engineering and technological subject, specifically within the field of aerospace and avionics. However, the reference to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer performing in the positive ESI mode and detection by SRM scan mode seems to be an error, as this pertains to analytical chemistry equipment, not SSR or aircraft identification. The three methods of positively identifying aircraft with SSR include: transponder responses to interrogations, squawk codes, and Mode S data, which includes the aircraft's unique identifier. Unfortunately, the given reference information is not applicable to the question about SSR, and there appears to be confusion between the SSR technology used in aviation and the mass spectrometry equipment used in chemical analysis.