12 Aeronautical information

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Author: ?

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 Airports, Points and Routes

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.

12.2 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