Poland airspace management with the most advanced features

Radar visualization data and related alerts are the new tools in the newest version of Common Airspace Tools (CAT) 3.0, software for the airspace management system. Poland is the only country so far to use such an advanced technology in this area. CAT 3.0 has just been deployed in Airspace Management Cell of Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA).

Radar visualization data is an innovative part of airspace management service improvement. From now on, there are not only airspace areas shown on the CAT system display and information about their usage or reservation, but also aircraft data operating in the specific area. It enables operators to track and supervise the whole operational situation in the airspace and allows to verify traffic and aircraft in particular area(s). It is significant feature in Advanced Flexible Use of Airspace concept implementation process. Flexibility in managing the airspace, as well as provision of the opportunity for real time, fast and dynamic reservation of airspace elements is the main goal of AFUA. At the same time, CAT 3.0 solutions get the system closer to supporting Dynamic Airspace Configuration process. DAC concept aims to create more flexible flow of air traffic.

Another new improvement is connection of radar visualization data with various alerts. ASM operators gained a new warning system feature – defined alerts. It concerns mainly use of the reserved area(s) and automatically generated warnings that there’s no traffic in an area for a specified period of time. The warning(s) urges AMC operator(s) to contact area(s) user in order to check status of the reserved airspace element. In other words, this update enables AMC to monitor real usage of the airspace structure and undertake flexible decisions on allocation of that element to another airspace users by cancelling the area reservation.

These features are unique in global airspace management. No other country has so far implemented such tools in their ASM systems. Innovative solutions, in future, will lead to cooperation between ASM/AMC services of different countries. Nowadays, we’re able to move forward the concept of Advanced Flexible Use of Airspace (AFUA), cooperate with Network Manager – European air traffic management system and using B2B Web Services connection, automatically exchange all the crucial data of active airspace structures and their activities published in Airspace Use Plan (AUP).

System CAT (Common Airspace Tool) was created and developed by Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PANSA). It’s been working operationally for over a dozen years and is being regularly updated. It’s being used to accept and verify reservations of various airspace elements, as well as improve the process of creation and submission of AUP – one of the basic and key aviation documents used by Polish airspace users. It’s supreme role is to support AMC (Airspace Management Cell) service, by exchanging data between systems used by different air traffic services: air traffic controllers, flight information services and Polish Air Forces.