Airborne Separation Assistance Systems (ASAS) provide information to the cockpit about the position of surrounding traffic. In the future this may enable the flight crew to take over some of the separation tasks of air traffic controllers. The ASAS project investigates which of these systems might be beneficial for operations at Schiphol.
The challenge
Airborne Separation Assistance Systems are a collection of applications that make use of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B). This is a data link system that transmits information from an aircraft (e.g. position, altitude, groundspeed, track, identification) to the ground and other aircraft. Based on this digital information the Airborne Separation Assistance Systems are developed that can offer improvements in capacity and sustainability. The objective of the ASAS project is to identify these possibilities.
The approach
The ASAS project makes an inventory of the various Airborne Separation Assistance Systems and their possibilities. By matching these possibilities to the requirements and desires of the Dutch aerospace sector, a shortlist will be made of systems that are ready for implementation or require focused/more detailed research.
The results
The ASAS project has been completed earlier this year and has produced a final report with an overview of the various Airborne Separation Assistance Systems and their possibilities for the Dutch aerospace sector. The end result is a series of recommendations on which systems should be taken into account when setting-up and executing an ASAS strategy.
The next ASAS applications are expected to offer benefits to Schiphol operations:
- ASPA/merging & spacing: This system can enable Time Based Separation on final in order to get closer to high capacity CDAs.
- Surface applications: These applications can increase ground handling capacity on Schiphol during fog.
Parties involved