Sky Analyzer for ASTERIX

An Eurocontrol ASTERIX format analyzing and inspection tool

Introduction

Sky Analyzer for ASTERIX is a powerful tool to open, decode, analyze and inspect surveilliance data in Eurocontrol All Purpose STructured Eurocontrol SuRveillance Information EXchange (ASTERIX) format.

AstAnalyzer Main WIndow

ASTERIX Analyzer allows you not only read ASTERIX data, but also make further analyzer on it.

It can also work with other tools in ASTERIX Toolkit, and give you a full capability from data recording, inspection, anlyzing to modification, generation and simulation.

Categories

The ASTERIX format defines different category for different type of surveillance.

ASTERIX Analyzer supports all commonly used ASTERIX categories, and different versions of some category. It will continuously expand its capability to support more categories in future.

The supported categories and versions are:

Category Title Version
CAT001 Monoradar Target Reports 1.0
CAT002 Monoradar Service Messages 1.0
CAT004 Safety Net Messages 1.10
CAT008 Transmission of Monoradar Derived Weather Information 1.0
CAT010 Transmission of Monosensor Surface Movement Data 1.1
CAT015 Independent Non-Cooperative Surveillance System Target Reports 1.1
CAT016 Independent Non-Cooperative Surveillance System Configuration Reports 1.0
CAT019 Multilateration System Status Messages 1.2
CAT020 MLT Messages 1.7, 1.8
CAT021 ADS-B Messages 0.23, 0.26, 2.x
CAT023 CNS/ATM Ground Station and Service Status Reports 1.2
CAT034 Transmission of Monoradar Service Messages 1.27
CAT048 Transmission of Monoradar Target Reports 1.15
CAT062 SDPS Track Messages 1.18
CAT065 SDPS Service Status Messages 1.2
CAT240 Radar Video Transmission 1.3

Note: Most categories are backward compatible, which means if the version of your data is lower or equal to the version listed in the table above, it can be correctly decoded. CAT021 is one exception of this backward compatibility.

User Application Profile

The ASTERIX standard defines all possible data items, but the existence and order of these data items are defined by User Application Profile (UAP).

ASTERIX Analyzer supports all standard UAP, and some widely used property UAPs defined by major ATC vendors.

The supported UAPs are:

  • Standard UAP
  • Property UAP of Raytheon radar
  • Property UAP of Thales ADS-B
  • Property UAP of Selex radar

Further more, ASTERIX Analyzer is able to analyze the data and automatically select a proper UAP to decode it. Normally user don’t need to worry about UAP selection.

File Formats

ASTERIX Analyzer supports a various of different file formats, including both open and property format. It can read and analyze data from all supported file format, there is also one File Convertor tool to make conversion between these formats.

The supported file formats are:

  • ASTERIX Toolkit Binary Redording File (.reb)
  • ASTERIX Toolkit XML Redording File (.rex)
  • ASTERIX Toolkit Compressed XML Redording File (.rez or .rex.xz)
  • ASTERIX Toolkit Index File (.rei)
  • tcpdump/Wireshark Capture File (.pcap)
  • Raw ASTERIX Data Stream (.ast)
  • Indra ATM System Recording File
  • Thales ATM System Recording File
  • SiATM ATM System Log File
  • AirNet ATM System Log File

Note 1: Some formats listed above may not appear in your application, it depends on your license type.

Note 2: Some more property formats are not listed here and supported only in customized/OEM version. Please contact us if you are interested in supporting property file format.

Comm-B Data Selector

ASTERIX Analyzer is capable to decode Comm-B Data Selector (BDS) data embedded in some data items. It is useful as some important data (e.g. FMS selected altitude) is not defined by ASTERIX and the only way to retrieve it is from BDS.

The supported BDS are:

  • BDS 1,0 - Data Link Capability Report
  • BDS 2,0 - Aircraft Identification
  • BDS 3,0 - TCAS/ACAS Active Resolution Advisory
  • BDS 4,0 - Selected Vertical Intention
  • BDS 5,0 - Track and Turn Report
  • BDS 6,0 - Heading and Speed Report

Data Inspection

ASTERIX Analyzer has friendly HMI and allows you read, decode and inspect data.

It supports different types of data sources, including

  • Recording file
  • LAN
  • Synchronous serial line

And it supports different types of data frame, including

  • Raw data without frame
  • HDLC
  • UDP
  • Property frame type

And there are two views to visually display data

  • Tree view, to display data frame/block/record/item in a tree structure
  • Track view, to display data record in a table structure

Also there is a powerful scriptable Filter function allows you find and show only data you are interested.

Data Analyze

Apart from veiwing the data, ASTERIX Analyzer has a set of tools to make further analyze on surveilliance data.

  • Radar North Marker & Sector Missing Analyze tool, allows you to analyze the continuty of radar rotation reprots;
  • Radar Coverage Analyze tool, allows you to generate radar coverage map by using real history data;
  • ADS-B receiver coverage analyze tool, allows you to generate ADS-B receiver coverage map for a single ground station by using real history data;
  • ADS-B network coverage analyze tool, allows you to generate ADS-B coverage map for a ADS-B ground station network by using real history data;
  • Message Transmission Delay Analyze tool, allows you to detect transmisssion delay problem.

Data Export

Data and analyze result can be exported into different formats, including

  • C/C++ struct
  • Microsoft Excel CSV
  • Google Earth KML
  • HTML
  • Adobe PDF

Support Tools

There is also a set of tools to expand the capability of Sky Analyzer, including

  • File Convertor, to make conversion between different file formats
  • Sky Recorder, a generic purpose tool to record and replay data
  • Sky Playback, a multi channel data playback tool, specially designed to reply ASTERIX data