Definition

Short Term Conflict Alert (STCA) is a ground-based safety net intended to assist the controller in preventing collision between aircraft by generating, in a timely manner, an alert of a potential or actual infringement of separation minima.

Description

A Short Term Conflict Alert (STCA) is a system to warn the ATCO of any situation where user defined minimum separation distances between any pair of surveillance tracks is, or is predicted to be violated within a short look ahead time (usually 2 minutes). This is achieved via a visual alert on the radar display, though some systems also provide an audible alert.

STCA is a concept rather than a specific system; there are therefore a number of differing implementations used by ATC providers across the world.

EUROCONTROL recommends that the following principles be placed at the centre of policy making for use of STCA: