12  Aeronautical information

Author

Enrico Spinielli

Author’s note: This part goes through all the most commonly used data formats in the aviation and ATM data analysis community.

Airspaces & / or aeronautical information in general (AIRAC):

  • airport information:
    • ARP
    • runway thresholds
    • parking positions]
  • Published Points
  • Routes
  • SID / STAR
  • …

Fatal events both en-route (mid-air collisions) and on the ground (landing or crashes) are at the origin of modern Air Traffic Control. In particular, flight plan filing was devised as a means to let controllers know where an aircraft was supposed to be and eventually be able to deconflict its trajectory with other flights nearby. The flight plan together with latest position reports was (and still is) the best information available to eventually launch search and rescue operations.

In principle, a flight plan could simply be a list of 4D coordinates (3D + time), but it surely was computationally and practically difficult to use it as such by ATC controllers who had to manually follow up airborne flights. So the en-route network was designed to have fixed and limited paths to follow. In doing so the probability of conflicts was increased but at the same time such network improves the efficiency in spotting them.

12.1 AIP

The data necessary for flight plan submission, air navigation and movements on the apron are managed via Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP) at country level by or on behalf of the respective civil aviation administration. The AIP structure and content is standardized. The AIP is normally composed of three parts

  • GEN (general)
  • ENR (en route)
  • AD (aerodromes).

AIPs are kept up-to-date following a 28-day cycle known as the AIRAC (Aeronautical Information Regulation And Control) cycle, Figure 12.1. Revisions are produced every 56 days (double AIRAC cycle) or every 28 days (single AIRAC cycle). These changes are received well in advance so that users of the aeronautical data can update their systems, i.e. flight management systems (FMS) or ATC databases. AIPS are publicly available for example as listed at [1].

Figure 12.1: AIRAC cycle, found at ICAO

The schedule of internationally agreed AIRAC effective dates can be calculated as follows:

12.2 Airports, Points and Routes

On a macroscopic level an airport is represented by its location and code.

The location is called Airport Reference Point (ARP) and the rules governing its definition are established by section 2.2 of Annex 14 in [2]: it shall be located near the initial or planned geometric centre of the aerodrome and shall normally remain where first established.

Depending on its size and importance, an airport can have an ICAO and/or IATA code assigned, for example Amsterdam’s Schiphol has ICAO code EHAM and IATA code AMS.

TODO
  • Check nomenclature, i.e. Significant Point, …
  • References:
    • ICAO Doc 4444
    • Rules of the Air https://www.pilot18.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Pilot18.com-ICAO-Annex-2-Rules-of-air.pdf
    • https://skybrary.aero/articles/waypoint
    • https://www.skybrary.aero/articles/ats-route
    • EUROCONTROL HMI:
      1. NVA Navigation Aid
      2. PWP Published Way Point
      3. ICP Internal Point
      4. GEO GEO Point
      5. RFP Reference Point
      6. RAD RADAR Point
      7. TER Terminal Point
      8. BDY Boundary Point
      9. DME Distance Measuring Equipment
      10. VOR VHF Omni-directional radio Range
      11. VOR_DMEco-located VHF Omni-directional radio Range and Distance Measuring Equipment
      12. VOR_DME_NDB co-located VHF Omni-directional radio Range, Distance Measuring Equipment and Non-Directional Beacon
      13. VORTAC co-located VHF Omni-directional radio Range and TACtical Air Navigator
      14. DVOR Doppler VHF Omni-directional radio Range
      15. DVOR_DME co-located Doppler VHF Omni-directional radio Range and Distance Measuring Equipment
      16. DVOR_DME_NDBco-located Doppler VHF Omni-directional radio Range, Distance Measuring Equipment and Non-Directional Beacon)
      17. DVORTAC co-located Doppler VHF Omni-directional radio Range and TACtical Air Navigator
      18. ILS Instrument Landing System
      19. ILS_DME co-located Instrument Landing System and Distance Measuring Equipment
      20. ILS_LLZ co-located Instrument Landing System and Localizer
      21. ILS_LLZ_DME co-located Instrument Landing System, Localizer and Distance Measuring Equipment
      22. LLZ Localizer
      23. LLZ_DME co-located Localizer and Distance Measuring Equipment
      24. L Locator
      25. LI Inner Locator
      26. LM Middle Locator
      27. LO Outer Locator
      28. L_DME co-located Locator and Distance Measuring Equipment
      29. MLS Microwave Landing System
      30. NDB Non-Directional Beacon
      31. NDB_DME co-located Non-Directional Beacon and Distance Measuring Equipment

The aviation route network is characterized by the definition of geographical points, waypoints, and segments connecting them, route segments.

12.3 Airspaces

TODO
  • different types of airspaces
    • from EUROCONTROL CHMI:
      1. SECTOR ES Elementary Airspace Sector
      2. SECTOR CS Collapsed Sector
      3. AUA ATC Unit Airspace
      4. CLUSTER Airspace Cluster
      5. SECTOR CONFIGURATION Sector Configuration
      6. AUAGATC Unit Airspace Group
      7. REGION Region
      8. IR Information Region
      9. NAS National Airspace
      10. AREA Area
      11. ERSA Elementary Restricted Airspace
      12. CRSA Composed Restricted Airspace
      13. AOI Area of Interest
      14. AOP Area of Protection
      15. ERAS Elementary Regulated Airspace
      16. CRAS Composed Regulated Airspace
      17. AIRBLOCK Airblock
    • from Skybrary: https://skybrary.aero/articles/classification-airspace