Autor(es): Carranca, Mário Rui Silva
Data: 2011
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10451/13917
Origem: Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa
Assunto(s): separation minima; decision support system; air traffic control; nav portugal; surveillance
In the current paradigm of Air Navigation, in which the increase in airspace density is accompanies by an increase in number and complexity of available Surveillance infrastructures, it becomes imperative to optimize all resources in order to continue to provide excellent services in Air Traffic Control. For this to happen, the separation between aircraft must be kept at a minimum, whilst still abiding by the worldwide security requirements that make us all feel safer on board an airplane than driving our cars. In this context, NAV Portugal’s Surveillance infrastructure analyst Paula Santos has initiated this project in the turn of the millennium by creating a prototype using Microsoft Excel to study the reliability and confidence that available surveillance infrastructures provide. The acclaim her approach received from European peers created the demand for an extensible, scalable solution build using modern technologies which can facilitate the accommodation of changes in the infrastructures, something the prototype did not. The System for Determination of Separation Minima presents the Separation Minima study community with precisely that. It integrates with SASS-C v7’s – EUROCONTROL’s software for evaluation of surveillance data recordings – to present users with valuable graphical data – and more – about each component of the Surveillance System, in separate or in cooperation. Its robust, modular build, allied with the extensive documentation produced during all the stages of software development, will facilitate the introduction of new features by future developers, as well as its adaptation to new types of Surveillance infrastructures and technologies. While at this time the solution has not been fully validated – due to severe conditionings imposed by the discrepancy between SASS-C v7’s data and its predecessor’s, SASS-C v6’s – it is our sincere belief that in the very near future, in cooperation with EUROCONTROL, the System for Determination of Separation Minima will be a vital decision-support tool for the Separation Minima study group in Portugal – and perhaps abroad.
