Abstract
The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau has been providing remote aerodrome flight information (advisory) services (remote AFIS) to small aerodromes such as island and local airports over 40 years. This remote AFIS is called “Remote Air-Ground communication” (“RAG” for short)”. RAG services are provided to 36 small aerodromes in Japan. In RAG operation, an aeronautical flight information services operator (AFISO) at a Flight Service Centre (FSC) gives information to aircraft pilots through VHF radio communication. The RAG working position has equipment including a flight information display, a surveillance display (air route surveillance radar and/or wide-area multilateration, since small aerodromes do not have approach or surface movement radars), weather information, and a video display of images from a PTZ camera and/or 180-degree coverage fixed camera at the aerodrome. In some cases, an AFISO is able to handle two small aerodromes simultaneously when the traffic volume is low. The RAG working positions for multiple aerodromes are equipped with two video circuits, one for each aerodrome. The AFISO usually monitors traffic at each airport by a combination of radar and the video display. In this chapter, we give an overview of the RAG service system functions and typical operations processes. We also discuss the operational issues with the existing equipment and services that led to investigations of Remote Tower technology for the next system.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Airports in Japan. (2020). Data from JCAB. Retrieved Oct. 01, 2020, from https://www.mlit.go.jp/koku/15_hf_000124.html.
AIM-j. (2020). Aeronautical Information Manual Japan, compiled by AIM-Japan Editorial Association, supervised by Japan Civil Aviation Bureau, Japan Meteorological Agency.
ICAO Annex 11. (2018). Air Traffic Services. 15th Edn.
Remotely Operated Aerodrome Flight Information Service. (2012). AN-Conf/12-WP/130 23/10/12, ICAO Working Paper, Twelfth Air Navigation Conference Montréa.
Acknowledgements
All the figures, photographs and information related to RAG in this chapter were provided by the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB). The authors would like to express special thanks to JCAB for their kind support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Inoue, S., Brown, M. (2022). Remotely-Operated AFIS in Japan. In: Fürstenau, N. (eds) Virtual and Remote Control Tower. Research Topics in Aerospace. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93650-1_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93650-1_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-93649-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-93650-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)