A new era for the ARTAS System

The first operational version of ATM suRveillance Tracker And Server (ARTAS) V8B1 was successfully released on 6 June 2012. This version is a tangible example of deployment of cost-effective common solutions, fostering infrastructure harmonisation and defragmentation.

The day before, David McMillan, EUROCONTROL’s Director General, had signed the Declaration of Suitability for Use (DSU) for the last two releases of the ARTAS systems: V8A1 and V8B1. Both are important milestones for the surveillance community.

ARTAS is the core element of the surveillance data processing chain, developed by EUROCONTROL on behalf of its Member States and installed in many ATC centres.

The latest version of ARTAS, V8B1 released on 6 June 2012, runs on a platform of two computers instead of the ten computers that were needed by previous generations, thanks to its own new middleware.

With ARTAS V8B1, the Surveillance Services (SRS) reinforce their contribution to economic efficiency through the deployment of cost-effective common solutions, fostering infrastructure harmonisation and defragmentation.

ARTAS was designed and developed as surveillance data processing and distribution software capable of establishing an accurate air situation picture of all traffic over a wide geographical area; it then distributes the relevant surveillance information to a community of user systems.

It can receive messages from various surveillance sensors, i.e., primary radars, secondary radars, Mode S radars, ADS-B Ground Stations, ADS-C services and Wide-Area Multilateration in ASTERIX format.

The DSU, long awaited by the ARTAS Users, meets the requirements of the European Parliament and Council Regulation (EC) No 552/2004 on the interoperability of the European Air Traffic Management network, amended by EC Regulation No 1070/2009, aiming to improve the performance and sustainability of the European aviation system.

The Interoperability Regulation forms part of the first package of legislation on air traffic management designed to create a Single European Sky (SES). The SES objective is to make for improved safety, optimum use of European airspace, reduced air traffic delays and sustainable air transport growth.

The Surveillance Services have responded to a collective need, expressed by stakeholders, for reliable, high-performance ATM surveillance networks, in line with the SES II performance regime.

The DSU is a major justification and as such supports the ARTAS Users when they submit their plans for ARTAS deployment to the Regulatory Authorities.

ARTAS’s future is looking bright: EUROCONTROL’s Provisional Council recently decided to continue financing the surveillance services from the Agency’s common budget and they approved the roadmap for ARTAS’s further development. The ARTAS community’s active participation in all the many activities encourage us to believe that even in the long-term, ARTAS will be Europe’s main enabler for surveillance services.

For further information, please contact Jean-Marc Duflot, Head of Surveillance Services

Useful links

ARTAS website

EC Regulation 552/2004 explained in SKYbrary