Airport surveillance and broadcast systems

AMASS is an add-on enhancement to the host Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model 3 (ASDE-3) radar that provides automated aural alerts to potential runway incursions and other hazards.

The cost-effective alternative to the ASDE-3/AMASS capability, referred to as ASDE-X, is one of the first new runway safety program technologies aimed at improving ATCS situational awareness by providing tools to supplement their tasks (McAnulty, Doros, & Poston, 2001).

Controllers in the tower see this information presented as a color display of aircraft and vehicle positions overlaid on a map of the airport's runways/taxiways and approach corridors.

Consisting largely of commercial off-the-shelf products, ASDE-X was designed as a solution for the smaller of the top-tier airports, and is especially helpful to controllers at night or in bad weather when visibility is poor.

The Federal Aviation Administration has also begun the process of deployment of visual and audio alarms, known as Safety Logic, that will assist ASDE-X by alerting controllers to possible collisions or runway incursions.

When ASDE-X is available at an airport, that fact will be included in the recorded ATIS (Automatic Terminal Information Service) to indicate to the pilot that the transponder should be left on while maneuvering on the ground.

[8] ASSC is part of ADS-B, which is one of the key elements of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Next Generation Air Transportation System implementation.