ERAM is the air traffic control automation system that will used by en route controllers to monitor aircraft position, separation, and predicted flight path. ERAM performs surveillance data processing for en route airspace and flight data processing, as well as distribution for both en route and terminal airspaces, including the track and trajectory predictions used to generate safety alerts. ERAM further performs aircraft-specific route eligibility checking and trajectory calculation to determine automated handoffs and flight data distribution, as well as to detect strategic conflicts with the predicted flight path. ERAM has been designed as a scalable system capable of incorporating future NextGen functionality.

Salt Lake City Center controllers evaluate the ERAM training course. Photo: ATO

Follow up:

Ok, so that is the official description of ERAM. What does that really mean? ERAM provides the platform for the Next Generation Air Transportation System. Bottom line, ERAM will replace the 40 year old Host computer software running at the centers around the country today. It will provide a foundation to incorporate future capabilities including surveillance data based on GPS instead of the current radar data.

It is expected to increase system capacity in order to meet projected demand.
The current Host system is increasingly difficult to maintain. Reliability of service will be improved as ERAM provides a backup with four levels of redundancy.
Using ERAM, the number of aircraft that each center can track is expected to rise from 1,100 to 1,900 and the number of radars each center can support will increase from 24 to 64. ERAM also makes it easier to provide three-mile separation within the En Route airspace.