TCAS Compatibility of Advanced Airborne Separation Assurance System Operations

Abstract

It is widely recognized that self-separated free flight has the opportunity to maximize the overall performance of the air traffic management system. Following the SESAR ATM Master Plan [1] airborne separation applications such as Airborne Spacing and Airborne Separation are the necessary steps from state of the art ADS-B based Airborne Traffic Situational Awareness to the future Free Flight ATM system based on Self-Separation. In the proposed Airborne Separation Assurance System (ASAS) applications the current Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) will still pursue its role as safety net and thus shall not show increased rate of Resolution Advisories (RA) or Traffic Advisories (TA). This paper describes a simulation study that compares RA rates in proposed advanced ASAS operations with real life RA rates. The study is based on the SESAR work package 4.7.6 “En-route Trajectory and Separation Management - ASAS Separation” where advanced ASAS operations (PO ASAS Category 3 [2]) have been assessed regarding their feasibility and operability by subject matter experts supported by interactive mock-ups.