How Satellite Communications Support Air Transport Performance: a European Space Agency Contribution to the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research Initiative
- Paper number
IAC-07-B2.1.05
- Author
Ms. Nathalie Ricard, European Space Agency (ESA)/ESTEC, The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Mr. Franco Ongaro, European Space Agency (ESA), France
- Coauthor
Mr. Hugo Gonzalez Perez, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), France
- Year
2007
- Abstract
The steady growth in air traffic in Europe may soon reach a limit in dense areas, due to the shortage of air/ground communication capacity between aircraft and air traffic control centres. While these centres control ca. 30,000 commercial flights and 200,000 general aviation flights today, demand is expected to be 2.4 times higher by 2024 and Eurocontrol has publicly announced a forecast of capacity shortage. Air Traffic Management (ATM) communication limitations would adversely affect aircraft operations and therefore threaten the air transport economy.
To address the issue, the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) programme shall implement a new ATM System for 2020, with the following objectives: enable a 3-fold increase in capacity, improve the safety performance by a factor of 10, enable a 10
Since the prediction of capacity shortage relates to the scarcity of radio spectrum resources in the VHF band currently used by air/ground systems, civil aviation authorities recognise that a new system should to be developed in another frequency band in the near future. That system could either be solely terrestrial-based or make use of satellites complementing the terrestrial system, depending on the respective technical and economic merits of each solution.
Satellite communications offer several advantages, and would allow major savings on the deployment and maintenance of ground-based radio stations. However, satellite communications have been scarcely used by aviation for ATM so far, mostly in low-density airspace, and several misgivings stand in the way of serious consideration being given to their capabilities: the lack of an operational demonstration in a realistic environment, misgivings about the costs, and the difference in industrial weight between the promoters of terrestrial solutions versus space-based alternatives.
Given this context, it is essential to proceed with a proof-of-concept for civil aviation, and demonstrate the advantages of a satellite system specifically designed for ATM, from both the performance and cost perspectives. This is the rationale for starting up the IRIS initiative under the umbrella of ESA’s programme of Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES). The present paper shall present users requirements, explain the role satellite communications can play, and provide a preliminary overview of the ATM system design.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-B2.1.05.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.