Section 9. Color Displays-Terminal

  1. COLOR USE ON ATC DISPLAYS

Color use on terminal systems was developed jointly with the appropriate Service Area Director of Air Traffic Operations and the Terminal Automation Human Factors Team. This section provides guidelines on the use of color on ATC displays through a national standard for terminal air traffic displays. These guidelines are intended to standardize the use of colors across the terminal systems. Any use outside these guidelines or outside the STARS Site Rules Document (SRD) must be developed jointly with the appropriate Service Area Director of Air Traffic Operations and the Terminal Automation Human Factors Team. All use of color on ATC displays must fall within these guidelines, except for MEARTS:

  1. Whenever color capabilities exist, the following National Color Standard for Terminal Systems must be installed:
  1. Background must be black.
  2. Point out identifier blinking or steady must be yellow.
  3. Compass Rose and range rings must be dim gray. Maps A and B must be dim gray or yellow.
  4. The default color of the geographic restriction border, fill, and text must be yellow.
  5. Data blocks owned must be white.
  6. Limited or partial data blocks unowned must be green.
  7. Search/Fusion target symbols must be blue.
  8. Beacon target extent must be green.
  9. History trails must be blue.
  10. Predicted track line must be white.
  11. Minimum separation line must be white.
  1. Whenever color is used to identify critical information it must be used with another method of notification such as blinking.
  2. Cultural color conventions which cannot be violated include red for warning and yellow for caution/highlight.
  3. The color pure blue should not be used for text, small symbols, other fine details, or as a background color.
  4. Ensure all colors that are used including text and symbols are presented in sufficient contrast.
  5. Use of color in general should be kept to a minimum.
  6. The specific colors that are selected for a display must take into account the ambient environment and the capabilities of the specific monitor.
  7. Any implementation of color is to be tested in the context and environment to which it was designed.
  8. Color use needs to be consistent across all of the displays that a single controller will use.