Eurocontrol Advances Surveillance Plan

Eurocontrol took a step toward real-time traffic situation communication with a new series of system rollouts. Eurocontrol, along with partners Airbus, DSNA and Sofréavia, will launch the CRISTAL-ATSAW project. CRISTAL, or Co-operative ValidatIon of Surveillance Techniques and ApplLications, is a collection of ground and airborne surveillance application validation projects. Airborne Traffic Situational Awareness (ATSAW) applications will give aircrew clear and easily interpretable information about surrounding traffic in the air and on the airport surface. This increased awareness will enhance air traffic safety, and will contribute to the development of more efficient aircraft operations – which will, in turn, generate capacity, Eurocontrol said. CRISTAL is part of Eurocontrol’s CASCADE program to coordinate the implementation of initial automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) applications in Europe. Airborne traffic situational awareness is enabled by ADS-B, which relies on aircraft broadcasting identity, position and velocity. In European continental airspace, implementation of “ADS-B out” capability is expected to start from 2008 and of ATSAW from 2011 onwards. More