An Evaluation Method of the Runway Status Light System

Runway Status Light System is the most effective runway incursion prevention system which using red light to give the pilot a direct warning of runway status. The reliability and availability of the system are closely related to the quality of the traffic surveillance data. Under certain surveillance conditions, whether the pilot can take actions to avoid the occurrence of collisions is related to whether the system can illuminate light timely and correctly. This paper proposes a method to evaluate the runway status light system, takes the most time-critical conflict scenario "takeoff-crossing" as an example, and using two aircraft’s data to analysis the effective of Runway Status Light System. Finally, we conclude that the combination of REL and THL can provide complete timely warning for the whole runway under the accuracy and update interval of the surveillance data that the mainstream surveillance and positioning system can provide.