Experts in the field of airport surface surveillance will convene March 18 at noon EST to discuss managing aircraft and vehicular traffic on the airport surface during an Avionics Magazine Webinar, "Airport Surface Management: Enhancing Safety, Situational Awareness on Runways and Taxiways."

Managing traffic on busy airport surfaces is important both for safety and operational efficiency. Serious runway incursions in which collisions were narrowly avoided have declined by half since 2001 in the United States. But runway incursions of all types have been on the rise in recent years.

In addition, the improved management of airport arrivals, departures, taxi and ramp operations, with expanded surveillance and real-time data sharing, has been identified as a key operational capability for achieving the Next Generational Air Transportation System (NextGen). Another enabler will be to improve airport access by using closely spaced parallel, converging and intersecting runways in reduced visibility conditions.

The Webinar's expert panel will address a variety of issues, including what technologies and equipment are being evaluated for bringing airport surface traffic information to the cockpit; the intent and results of FAA's Surface Indications and Alerts (SURFIA) demonstration program; and the status of equipping major U.S. airports with the Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X (ASDE-X) system.

Webinar speakers include Vincent Capezzuto, director of surveillance & broadcast services of FAA's Air Traffic Organization; Cyro Stone, director of Safe Route Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) products at ACSS; Michael Gerry, vice president of Air Traffic Systems products and Programs at Sensis; and Michael Grove, director of marketing product management for surveillance products at Honeywell Aerospace. The panel will be moderated by Bill Carey, editor in chief of Avionics Magazine.

For more information, or to register, visit http://www.aviationtoday.com/webinars/2010-0318.html