CHENNAI: Air Traffic Management will undergo a sea change in India with the introduction of space-based automatic dependent surveillance (ADS) broadcast wherein the pilot doesn’t have to feed in his location to the air traffic control room every 10 to 15 minutes. Pradeep Kandoth, general manager, Air Traffic Management (ATM), Chennai, said that it is being proposed to use the space-based ADS to monitor the airspace along the seas.
The space-based ADS-B service will complement ground-based air traffic surveillance systems currently in use, by seamlessly relaying position and status information of aircraft flying over oceans, poles and remote regions to air traffic controllers on the ground. This new capability is a quantum leap for remote surveillance thus unlocking operational efficiencies, reducing fuel costs and enhancing safety in remote and oceanic airspace.
It is learnt that the Airport Authority of India has signed an MoU with Aireon, developer and operator of the world’s first space-based global air traffic surveillance system to collaborate on the potential deployment of automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast (ADS-B) services in Indian airspace. This would ensure the surveillance over 1,200 nautical miles over the Indian Ocean with radar like pictures.
He also said that there were plans to bifurcate the oceanic airspace of Chennai which spans an area of around 4,00,000 square nautical miles through which around 400 international overflying aircraft transit daily using the 14 international routes providing the vital connectivity between the eastern and western parts of the globe. “We are planning to bifurcate it into lower and upper airspace in the next five to six months,” he said.