Sensis Corp.’s Wide Area Multilateration (WAM) deployment in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland has been certified for air traffic control by the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority, Sensis announced Monday.
Air traffic controllers are using the system within the oil platforms’ airspace by employing the same standards and procedures as a traditional radar system. This application is the industry’s first fully certified WAM system to provide ATC services for flights in an off-shore oil platform environment, according to Sensis.
“Air traffic controllers based at Aberdeen Airport are now using the precise surveillance from Sensis WAM in the same manner as traditional radar to monitor off-shore flights in all weather conditions,” said John Mayhew, General Manager NATS Aberdeen. “The result is a significant enhancement to flight safety in the area which is beyond the coverage of land-based radars.”
The Sensis WAM system covers 25,000 square miles of the North Sea, using multilateration sensors placed on 16 oil platforms, including a floating platform with positional changes of up to 100 meters. The system is capable of tracking flights using Mode S, Mode A/C or ADS-B, ensuring surveillance without any new avionics. The system uses multiple non-rotating sensors to triangulate aircraft location based on transponder signals. Additionally, every sensor deployed by Sensis also supports ADS-B.