Suitability of ADS-B as a Beacon for Stratospheric Balloon Platforms and Payloads

Abstract

Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) “Next Gen” air traffic control architecture. Aircraft equipped with ADSB receivers can “see” all other ADS-B equipped aircraft on a cockpit display in relation to their own position, including their range, bearing, altitude, heading, vertical velocity and airspeed. Aircraft so equipped have much improved situational awareness as pilots know where to look for potential traffic and to meet their own “see and avoid” responsibilities. A high altitude balloon equipped with an ADS-B transmitter/beacon automatically broadcasts it’s position and and trajectory data (generally once a second) which can be received by nearby aircraft and FAA ground based transceivers (GBTs) that feed into the air traffic control system where it can reach the “glass” of the appropriate air traffic controllers. This has the potential to greatly facilitate effective communications of balloon position data with the FAA during balloon flight operations, resulting in enhanced situational awareness and safety to the flying public. With appropriate receivers, balloon flight operations personnel (ground and airborne) can also receive real-time 3D position and velocity vectors from ADS-B equipped balloon platforms and payloads. This paper describes the results of a series of stratospheric balloon test flights of ADS-B systems conducted by Near Space Corporation, and how those results show the efficacy of using ADS-B for both balloon and payload beacons, and the potential for using balloon-borne high-altitude ADS-B collection and re-broadcast to enhance aviation safety in areas where no ADS-B ground based reception exists.