I was recently talking to the FAA Academy students about NextGen and some of the new technologies that will be coming in the years ahead. The students asked me some great questions. In fact – some of their questions were so good, that I did not have the answers for them.
Someone asked me about SWIM and what it stands for. That’s easy, SWIM stands for System Wide Information Management, but what is SWIM and what will it do for me or you. So I reached out to some of my peers and gathered some additional details on SWIM. This is what I found out.

Read more »

We all have questions about NextGen. How is it going to work? How will it affect me? There is one group – SPARC – who is going to help answer these questions. I was fortunate enough last month to attend the SPARC kick-off meeting, and I am excited by the energy and collaboration among the members.

Read more »

In the feedback we have received from our Making the Connections sessions, one recurring item has come up. You have asked for a glossary of terms related to NextGen. Well...never say we don't listen!

NextGen Acronym Glossary

A big thank you goes out to the folks in the NextGen office for working to get us this information compiled and ready to distribute. They were also the ones responsible for the fact sheets that we have on the site. We are always looking for ways to collaborate with the other offices and provide information to those who are asking.

As always, if you have questions or comments, don't hesitate to raise them here. We'll do our best to answer any question you have and if we cannot, we'll try and find someone who can.

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

Read more »

I have been to a few Making the Connection Managers’ Sessions and one of the issues that keeps coming up is the use of Acronyms and what they mean. I am planning on posting a different “acronym” each week with a short explanation and hopefully a picture.
I realize you know what most of the acronyms stand for, but this will help to explain what they mean to employees, family, and friends. Additionally, these may help explain what is going on with NextGen and in the ATO.
If there are any acronyms you've heard that you're not sure of, or think would be good to get out there, let me know and I will do my best to get it posted with an explanation. Here is the first acronym:

TRACON:
Terminal Radar Approach Control

Functional Category: Surveillance / Navigation

The Terminal Radar Approach Control is an FAA facility that houses air traffic controllers who use radar displays and radios to guide aircraft approaching and departing airports generally within a 30- to 50-mile radius up to 10,000 feet, as well as aircraft that may be flying over that airspace.

TRACON is capitalized at both FAA Headquarters and the regions.

Outside New York TRACON

Inside the Potomac TRACON