Ground-based safety nets are an integral part of the ATM system. Using primarily ATS surveillance data, they provide warning times of up to two minutes. Upon receiving an alert, air traffic controllers are expected to immediately assess the situation and take appropriate action. A valuable safety net is the automated short-term conflict alert (STCA), a sophisticated algorithm which uses the track data to warn against possible short-term conflicts.
STCAs are challenging to develop since they must minimise false alerts, while at the same time making sure that real conflicts trigger an appropriate and timely warning. Specific tuning is necessary for STCA to be effective especially in the terminal airspace in order to account for lower separation minima, as well as increased frequency of turns, climbs and descents. Validation exercises looked at enhanced STCA solutions to reduce the number of false and nuisance alerts compared to existing technologies, while maintaining the detection of genuine alerts. This is beneficial for flight safety, as it helps controllers focus on issues such as conflict risks or resolution advisories. The enhanced algorithms developed for the STCA prototype led to more precise warnings and fewer false and nuisance alerts when compared against existing STCA technology.
Tests using real traffic data demonstrated the operational and system feasibility of the prototype for the identification of conflicts between flights. For instance: the false alert rate of the new system was 15 % lower than the existing system. The likelihood of controllers receiving unnecessary resolution advisories during a level-off encounter between two trajectories was shown to be reduced by a factor of between 30 and 70 with the introduction of additional functionalities.
The solution is available for industrialisation.
SJU references: #60/Release 1
Benefits
- Identification of conflicts, both enroute and in the terminal area
- Reduced false alert rate while maintained genuine alert rate and warning times are maintained
- Significant increase in safety of flight especially during complex operations
Datapack