Cooperation To Address Electronic Terrain Obstacle Data
Mandate
Intermap Technologies and Skyguide announced the formation of a
formal cooperation Tuesday to deploy an advanced terrain and
obstacle solution in support of the International Civil Aviation
Organization’s (ICAO’s) Electronic Terrain and Obstacle
Data (eTOD) mandated initiative. Intermap, a worldwide 3D digital
mapping and geospatial solutions company, and Skyguide, the
organization responsible for providing air navigation services
within Swiss airspace and in the airspace of certain adjoining
regions in neighboring countries, will provide ICAO-compliant and
seamless terrain data for eTOD Areas 1 and 2 as well as any
customer-supplied data in an industry-compatible database.
Under ICAO mandates, member states are required to provide more
accurate terrain and obstacle data in the vicinity of airports as
part of a strategy to increase the safety while efficiently
managing the growth in air traffic. Intermap’s aviation data
service will allow air navigation service providers (ANSPs) and
civil aviation authorities (CAAs) to operationally plan more
efficiently while providing an increased level of quality, all
enabled by the unprecedented accuracy and consistency of
Intermap’s NEXTMap elevation data and its multi-nation
coverage.
“Intermap and Skyguide are able to bring an affordable
solution to the marketplace at a time when there is a lot of
pressure to reduce costs within the industry,” stated Tony
Brown, Intermap’s vice president of data products. “We
are pleased that we have formed this cooperation with Skyguide to
help provide solutions for the new eTOD requirements. The
availability of our uniform elevation datasets across Western
Europe enables us to solve the needs of multiple organizations that
are working to meet these requirements.”
The NEXTMap dataset will enable ANSPs and other users to create
more accurate planning of arrival and departure routes. Historical
cross-border harmonization problems, such as lack of standardized
data format and ease of use, are no longer issues, allowing users
to concentrate on the operational use of the data. The seamless
data can also be used by other applications like radio navigation
coverage calculations, simulations, or terrain warning systems such
as minimum altitude warning systems (MSAW) and others.
"High quality and timely data is becoming vital for the aviation
industry,” stated Jürg Brönnimann, Skyguide’s
head of Aeronautical Information Management (AIM). “Skyguide
is pleased to have Intermap as a business partner to provide
seamless high-quality terrain data and the capabilities to develop
and deliver value-added services based on the terrain and obstacle
data."
“Under this solution, customers will be freed from the
daunting task of acquiring ICAO-compliant terrain data sets from
different states, harmonizing, and transforming them into a
seamless dataset that can be used for planning,” continued
Brown. “This uniform dataset allows ANSPs to easily perform
procedure design and radio navigation coverage calculations, and
supports other operational aspects of the industry. Ultimately, the
data will save time and effort for every cross-border area for
which an ANSP or airline company performs planning
activities.”
The service will include options to include the collection of
terrain and obstacles in eTOD Areas 3 and 4, provisioning of a Web
interface, and the creation of powerful analytical tools not
typically present in ATM-industry-standard software. The process
for collecting the NEXTMap dataset is currently undergoing
certification by the FAA.
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