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Standardisation of Short Term Conflict Alert

The European Convergence and Implementation Plan (ECIP) contains an agreed pan-European Objective (ATC02.2) for ECAC-wide standardisation of Short Term Conflict Alert (STCA) in accordance with the EUROCONTROL Specification for Short Term Conflict Alert.

EUROCONTROL Specification for Short Term Conflict Alert

The document specifies the minimum requirements for the development, configuration and use of STCA in the Europe. STCA is a ground-based safety net intended to assist the controller in preventing collision between aircraft by generating, in a timely manner, an alert of a potential or actual infringement of separation minima.

Service Providers in Europe have until end 2008 to meet these requirements.

Comments and questions regarding the document can be sent to the contact at the bottom of this page.
  Acrobat EUROCONTROL Specification for Short Term Conflict Alert (Updated: Edition 1.0 dated 22 November 2007) (221K)

Note

The Specification has been subject to consultation through the EUROCONTROL Notification of Proposed Rule-Making (ENPRM) procedure.
  More information

Guidance Material

Comprehensive guidance material to assist in implementing the EUROCONTROL Specification for Short Term Conflict Alert covers the full STCA lifecycle:
  • Definition of objectives
  • Implementation or change
  • Tuning and validation
  • Operation and monitoring
The guidance material consists of a document titled EUROCONTROL Guidance Material for Short Term Conflict Alert with several appendices. Most appendices can be used as stand-alone documents for particular purposes. The structure of the guidance material is:
  Acrobat EUROCONTROL Guidance Material for Short Term Conflict Alert (392K) General description of the full STCA lifecycle, aimed at staff with responsibility for overall management of STCA.
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  Acrobat Appendix A: Reference STCA System (706K) Detailed technical explanation of typical implementation details of STCA with emphasis on parameterisation and performance optimisation. Optimisation concepts are also covered in detail.
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  Appendix B: Safety Assurance A set of three documents that can be used as starting point for STCA safety assurance work in a particular local context.
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  Acrobat Appendix B-1: Safety Argument for STCA System (291K) ANSPs may find it convenient to present the safety argument as a stand-alone document initially, as is the case with this document. However, the argument will ultimately become part of the safety case document and the stand-alone version will then become defunct.
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  Acrobat Appendix B-2: Generic Safety Plan for STCA Implementation (273K) Describes what safety assurance activities should be considered at each lifecycle phase, who should do them, and what the criteria for success are.
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  Acrobat Appendix B-3: Outline Safety Case for STCA System (445K) Addresses in detail the assurance and evidence from the System Definition stage and outlines the likely assurance and evidence for the later stages.
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  Acrobat Appendix C: Cost Framework for the Standardisation of STCA (287K) Assists in identifying potential financial implications of standardisation of STCA in compliance with the EUROCONTROL Specification for Short Term Conflict Alert.
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  MS Excel Appendix C: Supporting Spreadsheet (1.6M) .
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  Appendix D: Case Study A set of two documents describing the (partial) application of the optimisation and safety assurance guidance material in a demanding environment.
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  Acrobat Appendix D-1: Optimisation of STCA for ATCC Semmerzake (843K) Identifies potential solutions for handling military formation flights and a large number of primary tracks in STCA whilst keeping the number of nuisance alerts to an effective minimum.
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  Acrobat Appendix D-2: Functional Hazard Assessment of STCA for ATCC Semmerzake (371K) Describes the Functional Hazard Assessment of the identified potential solutions for optimisation of STCA, performed as initial step of safety assurance activities.
The above guidance material together with supplementary information (demonstrator, workshop presentations and articles) can be found here:
  Comprehensive guidance material for STCA Introduced at the Safety Nets Workshop 2006, updated and released December 2006 and updated again December 2007.
Safety Nets Team
Email: 
 
  Last validation: 31/03/2009