TAAATS is the hardware and software system used by Airservices Australia

Airservices Australia

Airservices Australia is an Australian Government agency, responsible for providing safe and environmentally sound air traffic control management and related airside services to the aviation industry within the Australian Flight Information Region...

 for Air Traffic Control services. It is a computer based system, which serves as an aid to Air Traffic Controllers. It does not control aircraft, but gives the user a display of information about an aircraft's position and associated information. It also handles communications and other information exchanges.

TAAATS is one of two systems in Australia, the other being the Australian Defence Air Traffic System

Australian Defence Air Traffic System

ADATS is the hardware and software system used by the Royal Australian Air Force for Air Traffic Control services. It is a computer based system, which serves as an aid to Air Traffic Controllers. It does not control aircraft, but gives the user a display of information about an aircraft's...

 (ADATS), which is used by the military. TAAATS is based on the Thales Eurocat system and consists of 23 radar towers mostly along the Eastern Seaboard.

The TAAATS Console

There are two Centres for TAAATS in Australia, one in Brisbane and one in Melbourne. Each TAAATS Centre has roughly 42 operational consoles or "Suites" and each suite has four computer screens:

• Air Situation Display (ASD) : This main screen is basically a map of the sector that shows the location of all aircraft in controlled airspace, as reported by one of several data sources – radar data processing, flight data processing and automatic dependent surveillance.

• Aeronautical Reference Data Display & Distribution System (ARDDDS) : A display providing access to a wide range of information including aircraft performance data, weather radar, airport/navigation aid/tracking point codes, airline ICAO designators, Standard Arrival Route (STAR) and Standard Instrument Departure (SID) "plates" and depiction of the airspace setup for TMA sectors.

• Voice Switching and Communications Select (VSCS) panel : A touch-sensitive screen allows controllers to choose the radio frequency they need to talk to pilots and ground staff, or the intercom for talking with other controllers.

• Auxiliary Display : The controller can call up a wide range of information such as weather forecasts, flight plans, strip windows, secondary maps and other material for the information of themselves and pilots.

The Old System

Under the old system, controlled airspace in Australia was divided into six flight information regions, based roughly on State boundaries. So, for example, when an aircraft flew from Perth to Sydney, the pilots would communicate with the following air traffic controllers:

• The tower in Perth gave instructions for runway taxiing and scheduling of take-off;

• A departures controller in Perth gave instructions for the climb out of Perth;

• An en route controller in Perth tracked the aircraft's progress as it headed east across the State;

• An en route controller in Adelaide tracked the aircraft as it traversed South Australia;

• An en route controller in Sydney tracked the aircraft once it entered New South Wales;

• An approach controller in Sydney gave the flight instructions for a safe approach to Kingsford Smith airport
  Sydney Airport
  Sydney Airport may refer to:* Sydney Airport, also known as Kingsford Smith International Airport, in Sydney, Australia* Sydney/J.A. Douglas McCurdy Airport, in Nova Scotia, Canada...
  
  ; and, finally,

• The tower at Kingsford Smith issued landing and taxiing instructions.

How TAAATS Works

The six control regions, have been split into two, with a line running basically from east to west along the centre (approximately). The Northern side of the line is controlled by Brisbane, and the Southern side is controlled by Melbourne.

The operations room of both, Brisbane and Melbourne, contain 42 individual workstations, divided into groups responsible for different sectors within the flight information region. A number of safeguards have been built into the system to reduce the risk of malfunction. For example, almost all of the electronic systems have been duplicated – standby equipment is ready to switch into immediate operation if the main equipment fails.

Both Brisbane "Centre" and Melbourne "Centre" contain a simulator for training new air traffic controllers, but this can be converted to the other control centre within 48 hours in the event of a devastating failure.

Contingency

Each centre simulator contains 10 consoles that can be configured to take over from the sister centre in the unlikely event that an entire centre is taken offline by a catastrophe. For individual console failures, control functions can be quickly transferred to a spare suite by a few mouse clicks on the supervisor's console.

See also

• Australian Air Traffic Control
  Australian air traffic control
  Air traffic control in Australia is provided by two different agencies, one civilian and one military. The civilian provider is Airservices Australia, which controls civilian airfields and airspace. The military provider is the Royal Australian Air Force, which controls military airfields and...
  
  
• Australian Defence Air Traffic System
  Australian Defence Air Traffic System
  ADATS is the hardware and software system used by the Royal Australian Air Force for Air Traffic Control services. It is a computer based system, which serves as an aid to Air Traffic Controllers. It does not control aircraft, but gives the user a display of information about an aircraft's...
  
  
• Airservices Australia
  Airservices Australia
  Airservices Australia is an Australian Government agency, responsible for providing safe and environmentally sound air traffic control management and related airside services to the aviation industry within the Australian Flight Information Region...