Nav Canada Selects Sensis for Move to Next-Generation Surveillance

Nav Canada has selected Sensis Corporation to supply new surveillance systems, including ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast) over Canada's North, in the Vancouver Harbor area and at Fort St. John, B.C., as part of a program that eventually will include up to 200 ADS-B units.

Initially six ADS-B sites will be deployed, along with redundant units, to cover the airspace over Hudson Bay, followed by similar installations to provide surveillance throughout Canada's northern regions, and later over its southern areas.  The digital, solid-state ADS-B equipment, consisting of an antenna, a receiver and a target processor, will be connected via telecommunications links to the appropriate area control center.

Vancouver Harbor and Fort St. John - neither of which has radar coverage today - will get 19 of Sensis' wide-area multilateration units.  Eleven will be installed around Vancouver Harbor, to assist air traffic controllers in the Vancouver Area Control Centre and the harbor control tower.  The other eight are slated for Fort St. John, which has recently experienced traffic growth due to increased oil and gas exploration, and where there is no low-level radar coverage today.

Wide-area multilateration uses triangulation to determine an aircraft's position from transponder signals received by at least three ground sites.

Nav Canada says the installations are part of its evolution toward a next-generation air traffic system.  According to John Crichton, Nav Canada's president and CEO: "These new technologies will allow us to further expand our air traffic surveillance capability, leading to safety and customer efficiency benefits at a much lower cost compared to traditional radar."  02-13-2007.

Click here to become a registered Flt Tech Online subscriber and receive headlines delivered to your e-mail each week

Click here to go back to the headlines