Meteorological influences on the design of advanced aircraft approach procedures for reduced environmental impacts

Abstract

ABSTRACT:There is increasing interest in the development of aircraft operating procedures that reduce the environmental impacts of commercial aviation through minimization of fuel burn, emissions and noise impacts. Meteorological factors can have a major influence on the behaviour of aircraft in different phases of flight, thus they must be carefully considered in the development of any new procedures. In this paper the most important of these factors are considered (wind profiles and local pressure variations) within the context of development of advanced approach procedures at a major UK airport. Models of the wind characteristics were developed for the region around the airport using data collected from the Natural Environment Research Council Mesosphere-Stratosphere-Troposphere Radar at Aberystwyth and surface wind measurements made at the airport, while an analysis of local pressure effects was based on readings taken at the airport. These models were used in a Monte Carlo flight simulator to determine the suitability of different approach procedure designs in terms of flight and environmental performance. Flight tests of the final procedure design were conducted at the airport with a variety of commercial aircraft. These demonstrated the suitability of the procedures (and hence validated the modelling strategies used) and that significant environmental benefits in terms of reduced noise, fuel burn and emissions were achieved compared to existing procedures.

Characterizing North Atlantic weather patterns for climate‐optimal aircraft routing

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A review of the impact of noise restrictions at airports

“…CDA (see Figure 1) allows aircraft to approach moderately dense terminal areas, eliminating the level altitude segments and their associated thrust transients at low altitude, while flying efficient, near-idle descent trajectories that save fuel, and reduce emissions and noise (Ren et al, 2011;Weitz et al, 2005). However, these procedures are not in use everywhere because effective implementation may be difficult since aircraft require special equipment and can have a negative impact on the airspace throughput and controller workload (Jackson, 2009;Reynolds et al, 2005).…”

Tactical Scheduling for Precision Air Traffic Operations: Past Research and Current Problems

“…The ability to mitigate the last two sources strategically is limited by the stochastic and complex nature of the nonlinear models of fluid motion derived from first principles (e.g., the Navier-Stokes equations). A number of approximations and empirical studies have been carried out (see, e.g., [56][57][58][59][60]), but all compensate the lack of sufficient data and analytical solutions by assumptions about the probability densities governing the stochastic field that can describe wind accurately.…”