Weather avoidance optimal routing for extended terminal airspace in support of Dynamic Airspace Configuration

Abstract

This paper describes an algorithmic approach for designing dynamic route structures for extended terminal airspace in the presence of convective weather. The algorithm combines trajectory optimization with heuristics to design efficient weather avoidance dynamic route structures. Optimal routing is performed for as far as 150 nautical miles from major airports. In support of Dynamic Airspace Configuration, factors such as distance between merge points, number of merging flows per merge point, and robustness of routes with respect to uncertainties in weather forecasts are explicitly considered. We present analysis of historical terminal operations that was conducted to identify suitable scenarios and also to gain insights and guidance for the design of dynamic route structure. We also present the algorithm details and experimental results.