AirNav - Surveillance / Radar

Current Surveillance Systems	AirNav Ireland has nine radar sites across Ireland, spanning from Malin, Co. Donegal in the North to Mount Gabriel, Co Cork in the South. At these sites, AirNav Ireland has eight new Mode-S Radars and three new Solid State Primary Radars, in addition to a traditional MSSR/PSR combined Radar at one of AirNav’s Dublin sites. These radars deliver full duplicated coverage of AirNav Ireland's airspace to our advanced ARTAS Surveillance Data Processing systems located in Shannon and Dublin Air Traffic Control centres. The ARTAS systems merge the radar data and distribute the appropriate air situation picture to our controllers in Shannon, Dublin and Cork. AirNav Ireland also operates an Advanced Surface Movement Guidance and Control System (ASMGCS), which facilitates the safe movement of aircraft and airport vehicles at Dublin Airport, even during poor visibility conditions. The ASMGCS incorporates Surface Movement Radar, Multilateration and ADS-B. In addition, AirNav Ireland's LIDAR systems deliver a picture of the atmosphere, enabling us to detect the presence of volcanic ash in Irish airspace.
Surveillance System Enhancements	The Surveillance Domain is currently evaluating the use of next generation surveillance sensor systems ADS-B and Wide Area Multilateration to augment our en route radars, with a view to improving the safety and cost effectiveness of AirNav Ireland's Surveillance infrastructure. We are also evaluating the next generation of ARTAS system to enable the use of the new sensors and the additional aircraft data that can be delivered.
Flight Data Processing	AirNav Ireland's Flight Data Processing Systems (FDPS) provide real-time flight information to the air traffic controllers and enable automated co-ordination between adjacent air traffic control centres. Detailed aircraft information allows the air traffic management (ATM) system to predict the flight plan profiles of aircraft,which, along with radar track information, is used for safety tools such as medium and short term conflict alerts. AirNav Ireland continues to make considerable investment in its ATM system. In 2011, AirNav Ireland was the first air navigation service provider to commission the COOPANS system. The COOPANS system is one of the most sophisticated ATM systems in the world and is developed in partnership with Sweden, Denmark, Austria and Croatia and leading system supplier, Thales. For more information, visit the COOPANS website. The COOPANS ATM system is an enhanced and harmonised product development of the Thales Topsky ATM system. It is designed to support en-route, approach and tower traffic control and has proven to be extremely reliable. The system is continuously being developed along a clear road map in line with the EU Implementing Rules, interoperability requirements and the EUROCONTROL vision for the future of ATM. In 2013, FANS (Future Air Navigation System) CPDLC (Controller Pilot Data Link Communications) services were introduced. Further developments included ATN (Aeronautical Telecommunications Network) CPDLC services along with additional Air Traffic Control (ATC) software aids. The AirNav Ireland air traffic control centres in Dublin and Shannon provide contingency capabilities for each other.
Emergency Air Situation Display (EASD)	AirNav Ireland have installed an independent emergency backup system, EASDS. The EASDS provides correlated aircraft positional data to the Dublin and Shannon Area Control Centres (ACC). The surveillance data sources for the backup data includes the output from the ACC Operational ARTAS System tracker, and the direct line radar input from each of the radar sensor sites in operational use.
Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network (AFTN) and ATS Message Handling System (AMHS)	AirNav Ireland operates a Frequentis AFTN (Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication Network) switch with AMHS (ATS Message Handling System) capabilities. Frequentis SmartMessenger is designed to send and receive ATS (Air Traffic Services) messages via the AFTN and the AMHS networks. The AFTN System is connected to London and Bordeaux for international exchange of Air Traffic Services (ATS) messages. In the near future, the international links will migrate to AMHS. ATS messages contain information including flight plans, CCAMS messages, NOTAM information, met data and a variety of other messages related to civil aeronautical operations. The messages are exchanged between air traffic control centres, other aeronautical facilities, meteorological centres, airline operation centres and individual users.
Aeronautical Information Management	The FDPS domain supports AirNav Ireland's migration from aeronautical information services (AIS) to aeronautical information management (AIM). To facilitate the migration a Frequentis system was installed for European AIS Database (EAD) access. In the future, AirNav Ireland will migrate to electronic AIP to complete the migration to Digital AIM (D-AIM). D-AIM is part of the Eurocontrol System Wide Information Management (SWIM) concept of how information is managed across European ATM Systems.
North Atlantic Communications Radio Officer Flight Data System	AirNav Ireland works continuously with Iceland Radio to develop the Radio Officer Flight Data System (ROFDS) with supplier TERN. This is done as part of the High Frequency (HF) agreement between AirNav Ireland and ISAVIA.