Atmospheric sciences Atmospheric sciences Atmospheric sciences are the study of the Earth's atmosphere, its processes, the effects other systems have on the atmosphere, and the effects of the atmosphere on these other systems. Meteorology includes atmospheric chemistry and atmospheric physics with a major focus on weather forecasting. Climatology is the study of atmospheric changes (both long and short-term) that define average climates and their change over time, due to both natural and anthropogenic climate variability. Aeronomy is the study of the upper layers of the atmosphere, where dissociation and ionization are important. Atmospheric science has been extended to the field of planetary
Short-term conflict alert Short-term conflict alert Short-term conflict alert (STCA) is an automated warning system for air traffic controllers (ATCO). It 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. ICAO Doc 4444 requires that radar systems should provide for the display of safety-related alerts including the presentation of actual and predicted conflict. It is worth mentioning that ICAO Doc 4444 does neither provide definitions of the term STCA nor "conflict alert". Instead the term STCA is ambiguously used in