Increasing airport arrival capacity in NextGen with wake turbulence avoidance

2014 Integrated Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Conference (ICNS) Conference Proceedings

Lunsford

2014

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As NextGen concepts seek increasing airport throughput, separation from naturally occurring wake turbulence becomes a limiting factor in the pursuit of capacity improvements in many cases. In recent years, the implementation of fixed procedural changes that reduce wake separations while maintaining safety have been very successful. Further opportunities for reducing wake constraints have led to exploiting specific meteorological conditions to mitigate wake hazards. As an example, one such program, entitled Wake Turbulence Mitigation for Departures, ensures safe reduction of successive departure separations based on dynamic crosswind conditions. Availability of these conditions, however, is limited by the abilities of the wind detection system -its sensing ability, data reliability and forecasting accuracy. Recent efforts are addressing these limitations by exploring how the use of better knowledge of wind and aircraft performance can increase availability or enable the design of further wake turbulence mitigation arrival and departure procedures. Additionally, recent advancements in aircraft flight track data assimilation have led to a deeper understanding of aircraft operational behavior during landing and take-off cycles. The confluence of these efforts is currently being leveraged to develop more sophisticated wake mitigation applications.This paper provides an overview of recent progress in developing broad data access and collection of weather and aircraft positional data; prospective applications that would leverage these data; and the relationship between the data density, or supply-side, requirements and the associated application demand needs.

Section: Related Wake Mitigation Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Applying improved wind and aircraft performance data in wake procedure concepts

2014 Integrated Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Conference (ICNS) Conference Proceedings

Lunsford

2014

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“…• How much measurable interaircraft spacing reduction will there be? Much of the engineering research literature in this domain has focused on the latter-designing the spacing reduction concepts and understanding the fundamental physical behavior behind wake propagation and decay (12)(13)(14)(15). However, this paper is primarily concerned with addressing the former question through providing insight into the effects of wind behavior on the applicability of winddependent wake-based procedures.…”

Section: Background and Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many relevant runway end pairs have significant stagger, which, when glide slope angles are equivalent, changes the aircraft positions relative to each other. This vertical displacement would most likely affect the required wind threshold value, creating a dependency on the leader-trailer orientation (12).…”

Section: Conclusion Limitations and Extensionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of Surface and Aloft Winds for Advanced Parallel Runway Operations

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation R

2012

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The increase in demand for air travel throughput has resulted in an effort to identify novel techniques for improving efficiency. One such effort targets the barrier imposed by wake turbulence separation standards—reducing interaircraft spacing during radar operations. Recently, concepts have focused on exploiting the effects of wake transport under wind fields by developing wind-dependent procedures that mitigate wake hazards during favorable wind conditions. However, the challenge with regard to computing benefits during conditional time epochs requires methodology designed for a niche modeling area that even sophisticated airport capacity simulation models lack. This work attempts to augment the capacity computation by presenting a characterization of the favorable crosswind availability across a range of thresholds and aloft monitoring heights based on Rapid Update Cycle and aviation system performance measure weather data. The focus is on presenting a generalization of wind behavior and on providing insight into the effects of the wind on the applicability of wind-dependent wake-based procedures. Data for nine major U.S. airports currently operating closely spaced parallel runways are analyzed.

“…In this way, small markets, which would otherwise receive limited access remained primarily within the domain of the air mode. Examples of this unimodal management are plentiful (4)(5)(6). Constraints on airport throughput have led to construction of more runways and tighter aircraft spacing rules; airway congestion has resulted in finer partitioning of airspace and air traffic control allocation.…”

Section: Trade Space Analysis Of Surface Alternatives For Short-haul Passenger Air Travelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade Space Analysis of Surface Alternatives for Short-Haul Passenger Air Travel

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation R

Boyce

Schofer

2012

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Intercity passenger transportation is a time- and energy-intensive activity. Despite a growing social consciousness of “green” alternatives, travelers continue to choose routes and modes primarily on the basis of travel time and cost. Although long-distance trips of more than 500 mi (800 km) are dominated by air travel, short- and medium-haul trips compete with surface modes when total travel time and cost are compared. Because of hub-and-spoke air transport networks, short-haul air travel is bundled with long-haul itineraries. At congested hubs, passengers can experience lengthy transfer times, which can provide an opportunity for competitive mode substitution. This paper focuses on the travel time trade-offs between air and surface modes and the implications for short-haul air trip substitutability through an analysis of 17 short-haul markets transferring through O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois. The results suggest that when transfer times are considered, mode substitutability is not directly associated with distance and that there are competitive opportunities for ground modes that may offer cost, energy, and environmental benefits.