News
NAV Canada acquires new surveillance technology

NAV Canada is pleased to announce that it has selected Sensis Corporation to supply new surveillance technologies to enhance the safe and efficient movement of aircraft over Canada's north, in the Vancouver Harbour area and at Fort St. John, B.C. None of these areas has surveillance coverage today.

NAV Canada sees the new technologies as providing more cost-effective and comprehensive surveillance systems that are intended to both enhance safety and reduce customer fuel costs through more efficient air traffic management.

Radar has been the traditional surveillance system. The systems include up to 200 Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) units. Initially six sites equipped with redundant units will provide surveillance for the airspace over Hudson Bay.

ADS-B is a satellite-based position reporting technology in which ADS-B ground stations receive reports from appropriately equipped aircraft which convey their GPS-derived position, identification and altitude, and other information that can be coded into a target message. These messages are then processed and displayed to air traffic controllers, with a picture of all reporting aircraft in a given area.

Sensis will also provide 19 Wide Area Multilateration units for the Vancouver Harbour and Fort St. John areas that will allow air traffic controllers to identify aircraft in what is often a complex flow of commercial and recreational traffic, especially at low altitudes.