TAMR Update: FUSION Deployed at Miami
Friday, November 09, 2012

By Mitch Herrick (MIA) and Candy Barr (Northeast Operational Support Facility NEOSF)

Automation and Operational Support Facility (OSF) automation personnel joined with the local NATCA controllers at Miami (MIA) in working on the successful deployment of fused radar (called FUSION) at MIA on October 18. MIA joined Philadelphia and Houston as the busiest Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) facilities running FUSION. This deployment was further proof of the internal collaboration taking place on the Terminal Automation Modernization and Replacement (TAMR) project and the leveraging of NATCA expertise within the Surveillance and Broadcast Services (SBS) project and with our brothers and sisters of the Multi-Units.

FUSION gives the controllers a one-second target update rate on the display as opposed to 4.6 seconds for short range radars, and 10-12 second updates for long-range radars. FUSION takes all the radars' input along with the Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) inputs to project a single target every second.

NATCA's TAMR representatives want to highlight the collaborative effort of all the necessary parties to make such a transition occur. Many people may not realize that the OSF adaptation specialists are represented by NATCA. Many of them have air traffic experience as well as automation backgrounds. Together with local MIA NATCA representatives, the training department at MIA and the Tech Ops personnel, these specialists worked very closely to provide the necessary training and site-specific data to ensure a successful transition. The team effort helped make for an extremely smooth transition.  

Around the country, facilities are transitioning to FUSION because of the hard work and exemplary collaboration of our NATCA brothers and sisters from Air Traffic, Staff Support, OSF and their respective Agency counterparts. This is another example NATCA and the FAA ensuring each other's mutual success.