The virtual simulator is located at Ames Research Center, about 45 kilometers south of San Francisco. At the heart of the FFC is the control tower simulation suite. This is a mocked up tower room with a 360-degree field of view. These display all the static and moving elements of the real or hypothetical airport under scrutiny including weather conditions, environmental and seasonal effects and the movement of up to 200 active aircraft and ground vehicles. The simulator's artificial world changes in real time.
Scenes evolve in the same manner that real-world changes occur.
In this digital reality, aircraft not only come and go, but so do weather patterns, cloud coverage and daylight. Consoles are at each controller's location showing radar, meteorological maps and other readouts. A touch-screen control interface permits the tower's occupants to respond to their environment. Both the scenery and the data feed to the ATC workstations are controlled from several other input areas in the building. Most important of these is the Test Engineer Room, which is the master control suite for all the audiovisual and simulation systems.