Ecological Altitude Display Design for Tactical Air Traffic Control

Abstract
The solution space for aircraft consists of those velocity, heading and altitude changes that avoid or resolve traffic conflicts. In the current design of the air traffic controller workspace the basic information for this task can all be found in the aircraft labels on the radar, while the heading and velocity can also be derived from the direction and speed of the aircraft on the radar display. Since the radar presents a top view of the traffic situation, no means of deriving the altitude other than by inspecting the aircraft labels can be found. Several previous attempts to improve the representation of the altitude domain in the radar display have been analyzed and information gathered from this has been used to create a new user interface. The aim of the new interface is to improve the support in conflict detection and resolution for air traffic controllers by representing the situation in the altitude domain. A preliminary feasibility test was performed from which it can be concluded that the altitude display has the potential to improve safety in air traffic control, but that additional effort should be invested in visualization of the waypoint constraints.