Strategic airspace constraint analysis and environmental impact of Dynamic Weather Routes

Abstract

This paper presents analyses of the strategic airspace constraints and the environmental impact of Dynamic Weather Routes automation. The Dynamic Weather Routes are flight plans along which an aircraft can save a user-specified amount of windcorrected flying time compared to the currently active flight plan. The strategic airspace constraints address sector congestion and Special Activity Area traversal along the two flight plans. The environmental impact considers fuel burn and emissions (e.g., hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, etc.) along the two flight plans. A comparison of airspace constraints and emission values between the as-flown tracks of the aircraft and the suggested Dynamic Weather Route is presented. The results are for August 1 through October 31, 2012, when NASA's Dynamic Weather Routes software was running continuously at the American Airlines System Operations Center in Ft. Worth, TX. The results indicate that Dynamic Weather Routes not only save flying time and fuel, but help reduce traffic congestion and harmful emissions as well.

Benefits Analysis of Multi-Center Dynamic Weather Routes

“…To do so would also be beneficial for the environment due to reduced emissions. The Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) automation has been developed and tested for Fort Worth Center (ZFW), as presented in McNally et al 1 , and Sheth et al 2,3 McNally et al 1 developed DWR for near-term, trajectory-based D https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20140010350 2019-06-29T00:14:39+00:00Z…”

“…4 The air traffic manager would find this beneficial during severe weather events because regions of airspace in the vicinity of weather become congested. Sheth et al 2,3 demonstrated that the proposed weather avoidance concept helps alleviate congestion by directing some flights along dynamically generated weather avoidance routes, and reduces environmental impact of flights. However, this work has focused on one Center and the benefits of DWR automation at a national level have not been analyzed.…”