[2.0] [SAA.ACT] Published special activity area - activation (NOTAM)


Note: This scenario corresponds to two NOTAM Templates: "Published PRD, TSA - area - activation” and “Published Navigation Warning Areas – activity”. Therefore, two item E production rules are included in this scenario.

Text NOTAM production rules

This section provides rules for the automated production of the text NOTAM message items, based on the AIXM 5.1 data encoding of the Event. Therefore, AIXM specific terms are used, such as names of features and properties, types of TimeSlices, etc:

  • the abbreviation ASE.BL. indicates that the corresponding data item must be taken from the Airspace BASELINE, which is valid at the start time of the Event;

  • the abbreviation ASE.TD. indicates that the corresponding data item must be taken from the Airspace TEMPDELTA that was created for the Event.

    • Note: According to encoding rules for SAA.ACT, the TEMPDELTA might also include AirspaceActivation elements that have been copied from the BASELINE data for compliance with the AIXM Temporality rules. The current practice is to not include such static information in the NOTAM text. Therefore, all AirspaceActivation that have an associated annotation with purpose=REMARK and the text="Baseline data copy. Not included in the NOTAM text generation" shall be excepted from the text NOTAM generation algorithm.



Several NOTAM possible

Note that if an ad-hoc special activity area is located in the vicinity of one or more airports or affects more than one FIR, explicit associations between the Event and one or more AirportHeliport or Airspace may be coded. Then, there exist dedicated provision in the OPADD (v4.1, section 2.3.9.3) with regard to the NOTAM that need to be issued in order to ensure that the NOTAM appear correctly in the relevant en-route and airport Pre-Flight Information Bulletins (PIB). Further details are provided in the “several NOTAM possible” section.

The NOTAM production rules provided on this page, unless specified otherwise, are applicable to the “first NOTAM” and the NOTAM containing one or more FIR in Item A. 

Event.concernedAirspaceEvent.concernedAirportHeliportNOTAM to be generated
1..*None

produce a single NOTAM with scope W for all the FIR(s) identified

1..*1..*Produce a "first" NOTAM with scope W for all FIR and additional (scope A) NOTAM for each airport concerned. The NOTAM with scope A shall have a modified Q code - QFALT/QFPLT (aerodrome/heliport limited, as appropriate), according to OPADD edition 4.1, item 2.3.9.3.
11..*Produce a "first" NOTAM with scope AW for the FIR and one of the aerodromes associated with the Event and additional (scope A) NOTAM for each additional airport. The NOTAM with scope A shall have a modified Q code - QFALT/QFPLT (aerodrome/heliport limited, as appropriate) according to OPADD edition 4.1, item 2.3.9.3.


Item A

The item A shall be generated according to the general production rules for item A using the concernedAirspace(s) or the concernedAirportHeliport, according to the rules specified in table above.

Item Q

Apply the common NOTAM production rules for Item Q, complemented by the following specific rules for this particular scenario:

Q code

The following mapping shall be used for the first NOTAM (the values marked with an asterisk * are unlikely to occur in practice, they are provided for completeness sake and to prevent undefined situations for the automatic creation of NOTAM):


ASE.BL.type

ASE.TD.AirspaceActivation.activity
(if not specified, refer to ASE.BL.AirspaceActivation.activity)

Corresponding Q code(s)

P

any

QRPCA

R

any

QRRCA

D

any

QRDCA

TSA

any

QRRCA or QRTCA or QRMCA

TRA

any

QRRCA or QRTCA or QRMCA

W

any

QRMCA or QRDCA

MTR, OTHER:MOA

any

QRMCA

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

AERIAL_WORK*, FIRE_FIGHTING*, LASER, HI_RADIO*

QRDCA

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

none specified

QRDCA

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

AIRSHOW*

QWALW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

SPORT*, AEROBATICS

QWBLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

EXERCISE, NAVAL_EXER

QWELW

D-OTHER, OTHER:AAR, A or OTHER

REFUEL

QWFLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

GLIDING

QWGLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

BLASTING*

QWHLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

BALLOON

QWLLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

TOWING

QWJLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

MISSILES, AIR_GUN*, ARTILLERY*, FIREWORKS*

QWMLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

PARACHUTE, PARAGLIDER, HANGGLIDING

QWPLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

CHEMICAL*, NUCLEAR*

QWRLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

OTHER:DEMOLITION*

QWDLW
D-OTHER, A or OTHEROTHER:CAPTIVE_BALLOON, OTHER:KITEQWCLW
D-OTHER, A or OTHEROTHER:ACFT_MASS_MOVEMENTQWTLW
D-OTHER, A or OTHEROTHER:ACFT_FORMATIONQWVLW
D-OTHER, A or OTHEROTHER:VOLCANOQWWLW
D-OTHER, A or OTHEROTHER:MODELQWZLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

GAS*

QWSLW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

UAV

QWULW

D-OTHER, A or OTHER

BIRD*QAFHX

PROTECT

VIP*

QROLP

Any other combination of type and activity...

QXXXX or as decided by the operator

For every affected AirportHeliport, a separate NOTAM with scope ‘A’ only is issued in order to provide correct information in all PIB sections for all concerned FIR and AD and to avoid duplications (See OPADD 2.3.9.3,AW). All scope ‘A’ NOTAM have to contain ARP as the geographical reference and NOTAM Code QFALT (aerodrome limited) without Item F) and G). If required, the vertical limits are inserted in Item E).

Note:

  • In the situations where two or more Q code alternatives are provided in the table above, the first one should be used as default in a data provider interface. The operator shall have the possibility to select an alternative one or even to change it completely (for example, by using "XX").

Scope

As general rules, for each NOTAM  that is generated:

  • If Item A contains the designator of one (or more) FIR, insert W.

  • If Item A contains the ICAO code of an AirportHeliport, insert AW, for the first such NOTAM and value A for the rest of the NOTAM.

However, more specific rules may be applied, depending on the split in NOTAM series, actual configuration of the FIR, etc. These have to be taken into consideration for each implementation.

Lower limit / Upper limit

For the first NOTAM, for activation with baseline limits, apply the common rules for {{Lower limit / Upper limit}}

For the activations with changed limits, the same procedures apply as for activations within normal limits, with the only difference that not always the value indicated in Items F or G is used as basis but the one relevant for PIB inclusion/exclusion:

  • Lower limit: use the lowest value between ASE.BL.AirspaceVolume.lowerLimit and ASE.TD.AirspaceActivation.AirspaceLayer.lowerLimit as basis for entry in lower limit of Q line.

  • Upper limit: use the highest value between ASE.BL.AirspaceVolume.upperLimit and ASE.TD.AirspaceActivation.AirspaceLayer.upperLimit as basis for entry in lower limit of Q line.

Geographical reference

For the first NOTAM, calculate the centre and the radius (in NM) of a circle that encompasses the whole special activity area. Insert these values in the geographical reference item, formatted as follows:

  • the set of coordinates comprises 11 characters rounded up or down to the nearest minute; i.e. Latitude (N/S) in 5 characters; Longitude (E/W) in 6 characters. The radius consists of 3 figures rounded up to the next higher whole Nautical Mile; e.g. 10.2NM shall be indicated as 011.

See also the Note with regard to the risk that the circle/radius does not encompass the whole area, as discussed in the {{Location and radius}} common rules for the NOTAM text generation.

Item B, C and D

Items B and C shall be decoded following the common production rules.

If at least one ASE.TD.activation.AirspaceActivation.timeInterval exists (meaning that the Event has an associated schedule), then it shall be represented in Item D according to the common NOTAM production rules for {{Item D, E - Schedules}}. Otherwise, Item D shall be left empty.

Item E

Two patterns are possible for automatically generating the E field text from the AIXM data:

Published PRD, TSA - area activation

This template shall be used when the ASE.BL.type has one of the values P, R, D, TSA, TRA, W, MTR, OTHER:MOA, OTHER:AAR.

EBNF Code
template_1 = "ASE.BL.type(1)" ["ASE.BL.designator(2)"] ["ASE.BL.name(2)"] "ASE.TD.AirspaceActivation.status(3)" \n["," "ASE.TD.AirspaceActivation.activity(5)"] "." "\n" \n
["Vertical limits changed during activation(6)" "." "\n"]  \n
{"\n" "ASE.TD.annotation(7)" "."}.
Published Navigation Warning Areas - activity

This template shall be used when the ASE.BL.type has a value different from P, R, D, TSA, TRA, W.

EBNF Code
template_2 = "ASE.TD.AirspaceActivation.activity(5)" "will take place (4) within area" "ASE.BL.name(2)" "." "\n" \n
["Vertical limits changed during activation(6)" "." "\n"]  \n
{"\n" "ASE.TD.annotation(7)" "."}.



Reference

Rule

(1)

The area type shall be included according to the following decoding table:

ASE.BL.type

Text to be inserted in Item E

P

“Prohibited Area”

R

"Restricted Area"

D

"Danger Area"

TSA

"Temporary Segregated Area"

TRA

"Temporary Reserved Area"

W

"Warning Area"

MTR

“Military Training Route”

OTHER:MOA

“Military Operations Area”

OTHER:AAR

“Air-to-air refuelling area”

(2)

The designator and the name of the area shall be included if present in the BASELINE data.

(3)

The activation status code shall be translated into readable text, as follows:

  • ACTIVE → "activated"

  • IN_USE* → "in use"

  • INTERMITTENT → “activated (intermittent use)”

The values marked with an asterisk (*) are unlikely to occur in practice.

(4)If ASE.TD.AirspaceActivation.status = 'INTERMITTENT', then insert "(intermittent use)" 

(5)

The activity code shall be translated into readable text, as indicated below. The values marked with an asterisk (*) are unlikely to occur in practice. However, a decoding is also provided for completeness sake.

  • ACCIDENT* → "flight accident site"
  • AD_TFC => "aerodrome traffic"
  • AERIAL_WORK* → "aerial work"
  • AEROBATICS → "aerobatics"
  • AIR_DROP* => "air dropping"

  • AIR_GUN* → "firing"
  • AIRSHOW* → "air display"
  • ARTILLERY* → "artillery firing"
  • ATS* → "Air traffic services"
  • BALLOON → "ascent of balloon"
  • BIRD* → "bird presence"
  • BIRD_MIGRATION* => "bird migration"

  • BLASTING* → "explosives blasting"
  • CHEMICAL* → "chemical hazard"
  • CROP_DUSTING => "crop spraying"

  • EXERCISE → "military exercise"
  • FAUNA* => "fauna protection"

  • FIRE_FIGHTING* → "fire fighting"
  • FIREWORKS* → "fireworks"
  • GAS* → "gas hazard"
  • GLIDING → "glider flying"
  • HANGGLIDING → "hang gliding"
  • HELI_TFC => "helicopter traffic"
  • HI_LIGHT → "non-navigational lights with high visibility"
  • HI_RADIO* → "high power radio transmissions"
  • JET_CLIMBING* => "jet climbing"

  • LASER → "laser hazard"
  • MILOPS* → "military operations"
  • MISSILES → "missile firing"
  • NATURE* => "nature protection"

  • NAVAL_EXER → "naval exercise"
  • NO_NOISE* => "noise prevention reasons"

  • NUCLEAR* → "nuclear hazard"
  • OIL* => "oil hazard"

  • OTHER → "unspecified hazard"
  • OTHER:ACFT_FORMATION → "formation flight"
  • OTHER:ACFT_MASS_MOVEMENT → "mass movement of acft"
  • OTHER:CAPTIVE_BALLOON → "captive balloon"
  • OTHER:DEMOLITION* → "demolition with explosives"
  • OTHER:KITE → "kite activities"
  • OTHER:MODEL → "model flying"
  • OTHER: SAR* → "SAR"
  • OTHER:SKY_LANTERN* → "ascent of sky lanterns"
  • OTHER:VOLCANO → "significant volcanic activity"
  • PARACHUTE → "parachute jumping exercise"
  • PARAGLIDER → "paragliding"
  • POPULATION* => "population protection"

  • PROCEDURE* → "special flight procedure"
  • RADIOSONDE* => "radiosonde launching"

  • REFINERY* => "refinery hazard"

  • REFUEL → "air refueling"
  • SHOOTING* => "firing"

  • SPACE_FLIGHT* → "space flight"
  • SPORT* → "sport flights"
  • TECHNICAL* => "technical activities"

  • TOWING → "banner/target towing"
  • TRAINING → "training activities"
  • UAV → "unmanned acft system activities"
  • ULM => "ultralight motorized acft activities"

  • VIP* → "VIP protection"
  • VIP_PRES* => "head of state protection"

  • VIP_VICE* => "vice-head of state protection"

  • WATER_BLASTING* => "water blasting"

(6)

If the ASE.TD.AirspaceActivation includes an AirspaceLayer that has:

  • upperLimit not equal to CEILING and different from any (if more than one present) ASE.BL.AirspaceGeometryComponent.upperLimit

  • or, lowerLimit not equal to FLOOR and different from any (if more than one present) ASE.BL.AirspaceGeometryComponent.lowerLimit

then the text "vertical limits changed during activation" or “vertical limits changed during activity”, as appropriate, shall be inserted here.

(7)

Annotations shall be translated into free text according to the common rules for annotations decoding.


Note: The objective is the full automatic generation of the NOTAM text, without human intervention. However, the implementers of the specification might consider reducing the cost of a fully automated generation by allowing the operator to fine-tune the text in order to improve its readability (with the inherent risk for human error, when re-typing is allowed).

Rules for additional airport NOTAM

As a pure aerodrome NOTAM (scope A) does not allow the use of items F and G and appears for an aerodrome only in PIB, information about the vertical extend may be added to Item E as follows:

  1. complete the text indicated in the dedicated scenario up to completing ASE.TD.AirspaceActivation.status(3) in template_1 or ASE.BL.name(2) including comma in template_2,

  2. insert "from", followed by the value contained in Item F of the first NOTAM including unit of measurement, 

  3. insert "to", followed by value contained in Item G of the first NOTAM including unit of measurement,  

  4. full stop

  5. if applicable, continue with the "ASE.TD.annotation(7)" element.

EBNF Code
template_scope_A =  "from" "ASE.BL.geometryComponent.lowerLimit" "to" "ASE.BL.geometryComponent.upperLimit" ".".

Items F & G

The values to be inserted in Item F and G depend on the values of the ASE.TD.activation.AirspaceActivation.levels.

  • If lowerLimit="FLOOR" then Item F shall get the lowest value between all ASE.BL.geometryComponent.lowerLimit of the parent Airspace;

  • If lowerLimit has any other value, then Item F shall get that value (including its reference and unit of measurement);

  • If upperLimit="CEILING" then Item G shall get the highest value between all ASE.BL.geometryComponent.upperLimit of the parent Airspace;

  • If upperLimit has any other value, then Item G shall get that value (including its reference and unit of measurement).

In all situations, the values in Items F and G shall be formatted according to common decoding rules for {{Item E, F, G - Vertical Limits}}.

Event Update

The eventual update of this type of event shall be encoded following the general rules for [archived] Event update or cancellation, which provide instructions for all NOTAM fields, except for Item E and the condition part of the Q code, in the case of some NOTAM C.

If a NOTAM C is produced, then the 4th and 5th letters (the "condition") of the Q code shall be "CN", except for the situation of a “new NOTAM to follow", in which case “XX”shall be used.

Two patterns are possible for automatically generating the E field text from the AIXM data:

Cancellation of Published PRD, TSA - area activation

This template shall be used when the ASE.BL.type has one of the values P, R, D, TSA, TRA, W.

EBNF Code
template_cancel_1 = "ASE.BL.type(1)" ["ASE.BL.designator(2)"] ["ASE.BL.name(2)"] ("activation cancelled." | " : New NOTAM to follow.(8)").


Cancellation of Published Navigation Warning Areas - activity

This template shall be used when the ASE.BL.type has a value different from P, R, D, TSA, TRA, W.

The following pattern should be used for automatically generating the E field text from the AIXM data:

EBNF Code
template_cancel_2 = "ASE.TD.AirspaceActivation.activity(5)" "within area" "ASE.BL.name(2)" ("cancelled." | " : New NOTAM to follow.(8)").

Reference

Rule

(8)

If the NOTAM will be followed by a new NOTAM concerning the same situation, then the operator shall have the possibility to choose the "New NOTAM to follow" branch.  This branch cannot be selected automatically because this information is only known by the operator.

Note: in this case, the 4th and 5th letters of the Q code shall also be changed into “XX”.