Definition
An air traffic service tool that uses recorded surveillance data — primarily ADS-B and radar tracks — to help locate an aircraft that is overdue, missing, or believed to be down. Controllers and search and rescue coordinators replay the aircraft's last known surveillance returns to establish a probable location, narrowing the search area before crews are launched.
Plain English
A way of using stored radar and ADS-B tracking data to figure out where a missing aircraft was last seen, so rescuers know where to start looking.
Context Anchor
You may see this term in search-and-rescue discussions, overdue aircraft situations, and FAA glossary material related to locating missing aircraft.
Derivation
"Surveillance" here refers to the electronic tracking systems (radar, ADS-B) that watch aircraft positions. "Enhanced" signals that the standard search and rescue process is being improved by adding that recorded tracking data, rather than relying only on flight plans, last radio calls, or visual searches.
Why Pilots Care
If you go down or lose communication, the speed and accuracy of the search depends heavily on whether your aircraft was being tracked. Filing flight plans, squawking the assigned code, and keeping ADS-B Out operating gives seSAR something to work with and can dramatically shrink the area searchers have to cover.
Intuition Check
Do not read “surveillance” here as someone actively watching one aircraft the whole time. In this context, it means using available aircraft tracking information after a search-and-rescue need exists.
Example Sentence 1
When the aircraft failed to arrive, the ARTCC used seSAR to replay its ADS-B track and identified a probable crash site within a few miles.
Example Sentence 2
Surveillance Enhanced Search and Rescue reduced the time needed to locate the downed aircraft from hours to minutes.