ATC trajectory reconstruction for automated evaluation of sensor and tracker performance

Currently most air traffic controller decisions are based on the information provided by the ground support tools provided by automation systems, based on a network of surveillance sensors and the associated tracker. To guarantee surveillance integrity, it is clear that performance assessments of the different elements of the surveillance system are necessary. Due to the evolution suffered by the surveillance processing chain in the recent past, its complexity has been increased by the integration of new sensor types (e.g., automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast [ADS-B] [1], Mode S radars [2], and wide area multilateration [WAM] [3]), data link applications, and networking technologies. With new sensors, there is a need for system-level performance evaluations as well as methods for establishing assessment at each component of the tracking evaluation.