A Recognized Air Picture or RAP is a (theoretically) complete listing of all aircraft in flight within a particular airspace, with each aircraft being identified as friendly or hostile, and ideally containing additional information such as type of aircraft, flight number, and flight plan. The information may be drawn from a number of different sources, including military radar, civilian air traffic controllers, and allied nations or multi-national organizations such as NATO.
For the United States and Canada, the Recognized Air Picture is maintained continuously by NORAD at Peterson Air Force Base (with Cheyenne Mountain as a warm standby). In the United Kingdom, it is maintained by the United Kingdom Combined Air Operations Centre at RAF Air Command at RAF High Wycombe. For the rest of Europe, NATO has an Air Command and Control System program underway to unify the various systems in use by NATO members throughout Europe.
Famous quotes containing the words recognized, air and/or picture:
“By all but the pathologically romantic, it is now recognized that this is not the age of the small man.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)
“[Allegory] should ... be very sparingly practised, lest, whilst the writer plays with his own fancies and diverts himself by cutting the air with his wide spread wings, he should soar out of view of his readers, leaving them in confusion and perplexity to explore his viewless track.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)