Airservices is a government-owned corporation providing safe, secure, efficient and environmentally responsible services to the aviation industry. We manage air traffic operations for around 75 million passengers on more than three million flights every year.

Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast

An ADS-B ground station at Woomera, South Australia.

Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) is an air traffic surveillance technology that enables aircraft to be accurately tracked by air traffic controllers and other pilots without the need for conventional radar.

Airservices has deployed ADS-B ground stations across Australia which, when combined with radar, provide ATC surveillance capability over the entire continent above FL300 (30,000 feet). Substantial coverage also exists at lower levels – extending to near the surface in the vicinity of each ground station.

ADS-B services are being implemented in stages during which time surveillance coverage will progressively increase. Currently, the system is supported by 29 duplicated ADS-B ground stations nationwide plus 14 ADS-B capable multilateration sites in Tasmania and 16 sites in the Sydney basin. These are now delivering continuous surveillance of aircraft operations high level airspace across western, central and northern Australia where radar coverage does not currently exsist. A further 14 ground stations are being considered to support the needs of airlines, regional and general aviation.

In addition, Airservices and the Indonesian Directorate General of Civil Aviation began exchanging ADS-B data between the Australian and Indonesian FIRs in November 2010. A world-first, the ADS-B data exchange allows air traffic controllers to precisely track aircraft up to 150 nautical miles (278km) inside each country’s airspace. ADS-B has also extended Airservices real-time  surveillance of air traffic out towards the the boundary of Australia’s  flight information region (FIR) with New Zealand, midway across the Tasman Sea.

While the initial application of ADS-B is to provide high quality surveillance for air traffic control, it also facilitates a number of advanced air-to-air applications that will in future significantly improve safety and performance of aircraft operations.

The technology delivers both environmental and economic benefits through:

  • improved aircraft access to preferred routes and levels,
  • more efficient diversions around restricted areas and weather and,
  • increased accuracy of navigation.

In addition to delivering radar like surveillance at a fraction of the cost of radar, it also offers considerable safety improvements through:

  • rapid and targeted search and rescue response,
  • reduced collision risks around regional aerodromes, and
  • improved ATC and pilot situational awareness.

Other ADS-B safety and operational benefits include:

  • Positive ATC identification while within ADS-B coverage
  • No requirement for position reporting while identified
  • Identified aircraft receive priority over non-identified aircraft
  • Route and altitude conformance monitoring
  • ATC safety net alerting functions (e.g. short term conflict alert and dangerous area infringement warning.