Air traffic situational awareness using HF communication

A method for reporting aircraft situational awareness information, the method comprising:

• receiving, by a global positioning system (GPS) receiver of a first aircraft, positioning signals and determining a position of the first aircraft;
• receiving, by a traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) of the first aircraft, collision avoidance information from one or more second aircrafts;
• generating, by a processor of the first aircraft coupled to the GPS receiver and the TCAS, a situational awareness message using the determined position of the first aircraft and the collision avoidance information from the one or more second aircrafts;
• and
• transmitting, by a high frequency (HF) transceiver of the first aircraft coupled to the processor, while no air traffic control ground station is within automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) broadcast coverage range from the first aircraft and during a time slot assigned by a HF-capable air traffic control ground station to the HF transceiver according to a time division multiplexing scheme, the generated situational awareness message in a single data packet through a HF channel to one or more HF-capable air traffic control ground stations, the HF transceiver having an operational bandwidth including a frequency band extending from 3 MHz to 30 MHz, and HF signals representing the single data packet reflecting off one or more ionosphere layers before reaching the one or more HF ground stations,
• the generated situational awareness message transmitted in the single data packet allowing a ground air traffic control system including the one or more HF-capable air traffic control stations to track the first aircraft while no air traffic control ground station is within ADS-B broadcast coverage range from the first aircraft.

A system for monitoring aircraft positioning, the system comprising:

• a global positioning system (GPS) receiver of a first aircraft, the GPS receiver configured to receive positioning signals and determine a position of the first aircraft;
• a traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) of the first aircraft configured to receive collision avoidance information from one or more second aircrafts;
• a processor of the first aircraft coupled to the GPS receiver and the TCAS, and configured to generate a situational awareness message using the determined position of the first aircraft and the collision avoidance information from the one or more second aircrafts;
• a high frequency (HF) transceiver of the first aircraft coupled to the processor and configured to transmit, while no air traffic control ground station is within automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) broadcast coverage range from the first aircraft and during a time slot assigned by a first HF-capable air traffic control ground station to the HF transceiver according to a time division multiplexing scheme, the generated situational awareness message in a single data packet through a HF channel, the HF transceiver having an operational bandwidth including a frequency band extending from 3 MHz to 30 MHz;
• and
• a network of communicatively coupled HF-capable air traffic control ground stations, including the first ground station, configured to:
• receive one or more HF signals representing the single data packet including the generated message, the one or more HF signals reflecting off one or more ionosphere layers before reaching at least one of the HF-capable air traffic control ground stations;
• and
• transmit information associated with the generated situational awareness message to a server for generating a positioning map indicative of positions of a plurality of aircrafts, the positioning map allowing a ground air traffic control system including the network of communicatively coupled HF-capable air traffic control ground stations to track aircrafts while not within ADS-B broadcast coverage range from air traffic control ground stations.