Surveillance and navigation
Overview
The basis of our nation’s air traffic control system, and much of Lincoln Laboratory’s focus in surveillance and navigation, has involved ensuring an accurate and timely picture of the airspace. This includes the precise location and identification of aircraft, the current and future weather phenomena that affect their flight and even avian hazards in the terminal area. Our air traffic surveillance work has also focused on the airport surface, addressing runway incursions that have become a significant safety concern as air traffic has increased. More recently new issues such as the integration of unmanned air vehicles into civil airspace and issues related to homeland security have become very important.
Runway Status Lights ›Runway incursions present a persistent problem in airport ground operations. The FAA is pursuing a wide range of activities to improve runway safety. One of the leading safety technologies, called Runway Status Lights (RWSL), is being developed and tested by Lincoln Laboratory.
Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) ›
TCAS has had extraordinary success in reducing the risk of mid-air collisions by alerting pilots directly in the cockpit that a collision with another aircraft is imminent. TCAS is now operating in all commercial airline aircraft to reduce the risk of midair collisions. Lincoln continues to investigate improvements to the TCAS threat logic.
Unmanned Air Vehicle Airspace Access ›
The integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into civil airspace requires new methods of ensuring collision avoidance. Concerns over command and control latency, vehicle performance, reliability of autonomous functions, and interoperability of sense-and-avoid systems with TCAS and Air Traffic Control must be resolved.
Homeland Protection Support/ERSA ›
The Air Traffic Control mission area teams were very helpful in a Laboratory-wide effort to support Enhanced Regional Situation Awareness (ERSA). ERSA is an integrated sensing and decision support system developed for the complex and busy airspace surrounding the National Capital Region.
Terminal Avian Hazard Detection ›
Bird strikes are an increasing concern for military and civil aviation as airport operations and bird populations continue to increase. The Terminal Avian Hazard Detection project seeks to address this growing problem by providing continuously updated information on locations and density of avian targets in the immediate vicinity of an airfield and to generate real-time warnings of bird activity for dissemination to pilots by air traffic controllers or direct data link.
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