SESAR Digital Sky Demonstrators for Greener, More Scalable and Resilient Air Traffic Management

Objective:The objective is to modernise air transport infrastructure on the TEN-T network.Scope:In accordance with the Article 9(2)(b)(ii) of the CEF Regulation, this priority will support works related to DSDs addressing the areas listed below.SESAR’s DES aims at delivering innovative, interoperable, and sustainable ATM solutions (SESAR solutions)[1] through an R&I innovation pipeline that brings new operational and technological ATM solutions up to the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6[2].The programme also aims at accelerating the deployment (industrialisation and implementation activities[3]) of SESAR solutions by establishing Digital Sky Demonstrators (DSD), which offer a viable means to accelerate market uptake of SESAR solutions.DSDs take place in live operational and, when required, cross-border ground and airborne environments, thus providing tangible evidence of the environmental, capacity, safety, security, and efficiency performance benefits of the services, technologies and standards resulting from the relevant SESAR solutions. They also bridge research with industrialisation and implementation activities for which DSD shall provide recommendations. The DSDs are, therefore, closely connected to standardisation and regulatory activities and will provide a platform for a critical mass of ‘early movers’ (at least 20%[4] of the targeted operating environment).The DSDs contribute to achieving a climate neutral aviation and to making Europe the most efficient and environmentally friendly sky to fly in the world, by accelerating implementation of operational measures and technological innovations to improve the fuel efficiency of flights, reduce CO2 emissions, reduce aircraft noise impact, and improve air quality at and around the airports.Furthermore, the DSDs enable a more flexible, scalable, resilient, safe, and secure ATM that can withstand disruptions in the aviation system based on the future European airspace architecture underlying the DES and contributing to the digital transformation of air navigation service provision. This requires changes in the way these services are provided, with a view to delivering the capacity needed by airspace users and building a state-of-the-art, scalable, and resilient system that will remain at least as safe as today.DSDs aim to bring to TRL-8[5] the SESAR solutions that contribute to the following areas that are critical for achieving the DES and the related performance ambitions: Alerts for reduction of collision risks on taxiways and runways.Optimising airport and TMA environmental footprint.Dynamic airspace configuration.Increased automation support.Transformation to trajectory-based operations (TBO).Virtualisation of operations.Transition towards high performance of air-ground connectivity (multilink).Service-oriented delivery model (data driven and cloud based).CNS optimisation, modernisation and resilience.Implement innovative air mobility (IAM) & drone operations. Proposals may address one or more of the areas listed above, which are described in the following sections, and are not required to address all of the underlying SESAR solutions and elements.The details on the relevant on-going projects referred to in following areas are available on the SESAR 3 JU website (www.sesarju.eu). Alerts for reduction of collision risks on taxiways & runways Airport ground safety nets Airport safety nets require the A-SMGCS planning and routing function. This function is not mandated by CP1. Moreover, the CP1 mandate is limited to runways.This DSD shall demonstrate the safety benefits delivered thanks to the implementation of support tools for controllers at A-SMGCS equipped airports to detect (and provide appropriate alerts on) potential and actual conflicting situations, incursions and non-conformance to procedures or ATC clearances, involving mobiles (and stationary traffic) as well as unauthorised/unidentified traffic on runways.The proposed demonstrators shall implement these elements: Conflicting ATC clearances (CATC) including. This may support the safety case for the application of the ICAO ‘reasonable assurance’ principle.Conformance monitoring (CMAC) alerting functions for controllers and new information regarding the operational status of a runway, which increases ATCO situation awareness. The demonstration area may be extended to the complete aerodrome movement area (i.e., taxiways and in the apron/stand/gate area).The proposed demonstrators shall implement the following SESAR solution: PJ.02-W2-21.1 ‘Enhanced Airport Safety Networks for Controllers at A-SMGCS Airports’ (https://www.sesarju.eu/sesar-solutions/extended-airport-safety-nets-controllers-smgcs-airports) To demonstrate the benefits of this SESAR solution, the proposed demonstrators shall be implemented in at least 3 airports (either medium, large or very large airports) in at least 2 different EU Member States.2. Optimising airport and TMA environmental footprint2.1 Integration of regional airports with the Network Manager[6]Increased connectivity between EU regional airports and the Network Manager is done via the provision of departure planning information (DPI) messages from airports to the Network Manager based on target times and a reduced set of CDM milestones implemented and calculated in a quasi-automatic fashion.This DSD aims at demonstrating that by increasing the connectivity between regional EU airports and the Network Manager and by a better and earlier alignment between network predicted and last planned/before airborne trajectories, the predictability of the European network will be improved. The demonstrator shall also give evidence of improvements in the Airspace Users flight planning processes (e.g., improving fuel prediction), thanks to the distribution by the Network Manager of the departure planning information received from the airports. The proposed demonstrator shall provide an estimation of the network capacity gains and their correspon