TOPIC: A3 Airspace Systems

• Trajectory-based operations, which manages traffic using 4-dimensional trajectories to achieve increases in capacity and efficiency;
  
• Super-density operations, which maximizes the use of limited runways at the busiest airports;
  
• Weather assimilated into decision making, with emphasis on probabilistic weather;
  
• Equivalent visual operations, which will allow the system to maintain visual flight rule capacities in instrument flight rule conditions.
  

• Four-dimensional trajectory modeling in the presence of uncertainty;
  
• Air/air and air/ground trajectory exchange interoperability;
  
• Trajectory uncertainty prediction and mitigation;
  
• Intent information requirements for separation assurance and super density operations;
  
• Airspace re-design techniques that improve capacity, including changing shape of current sectors and introducing new airspace classes;
  
• Pilot and controller procedures and decision support systems needed to facilitate dynamic airspace changes;
  
• Collaborative decision making techniques involving multiple agents;
  
• Integrated solutions of ATM functions over multiple planning intervals and across domains;
  
• Optimal allocation of separation assurance functions across humans and automation and air and ground systems;
  
• Optimization techniques to address demand/capacity imbalances;
  
• New safety assessment methods for safety-critical air and ground automation technologies;
  
• Scheduling optimization for integrated arrival/departure/surface operations;
  
• Displays and procedures for very closely-spaced parallel approaches;
  
• Traffic complexity monitoring and prediction;
  
• Trajectory design and conformance monitoring;
  
• Weather assimilated into ATM decision-making;
  
• Environmental metrics and assessments of new concepts and technologies;
  
• The effect of new vehicles (including UAVs) on air traffic management;
  
• Gate-to-Gate modeling for NextGen concepts;
  
• Integration of UAVs into the NAS, including examination of the anticipated mix of UAV classes and capabilities (equipment, size, mission) in the next 20 years;
  
• The effect of traffic congestion on integration of UAVs into the NAS;
  
• Separation assurance responsibilities with regard to UAVs;
  
• The requirements for, and the development of, a simulation environment to test UAV integration in the NAS.

• Optimization of surface aircraft traffic;
  
• Dynamic airport configuration management (including the optimal balancing of Airportal resources for arrival, departure, and surface aircraft operations);
  
• Predictive models to enable mitigation of wake vortex hazards;
  
• New procedures for performing safe, closely spaced, and converging approaches at closer distances than are currently allowed;
  
• Modeling, simulation, and experimental validation research focused on single and multiple regional airports (metroplex);
  
• Other innovative opportunities for transformational improvements in Airportal/metroplex throughput.
  

• Human/automation interface concepts and standards for flight crews and air traffic control personnel specific to surface/airportal operations;
  
• Integration of decision-support tools across different airspace domains;
  
• Advanced technologies and approaches to achieving 2-3X improvement in the throughput of airports and metroplexes;
  
• Automatic taxi clearance and aircraft control technologies;
  
• Scheduling algorithm for aircraft deicing and integration with a surface traffic decision-support tool;
  
• Collaborative decision making between airlines and airport traffic control tower personnel for optimized surface operations, including push back scheduling and management of airport surface assets;
  
• Real-time assessment of the performance of surface operations;
  
• Computationally efficient solution methods for surface traffic planning optimization problems;
  
• Automation concepts and technologies for handling off-nominal situations and failure recovery mechanism;
  
• Design of computer-human interface (CHI) for ground-based automated surface traffic management;
  
• 4D taxi clearances and air-ground trajectory negotiation for landing aircraft;
  
• Innovative concepts, technologies, and procedures for safely increasing throughput of runways, especially combinations of parallel, converging, and intersecting runways;
  
• Innovative concepts, technologies, and procedures to maintain airport runway throughput under off-nominal conditions such as zero-zero ceiling and visibility;
  
• Innovative ideas for very closely spaced parallel runway operations, including airborne spacing algorithms and wake vortex avoidance procedures;
  
• Algorithms for determining wake vortex encounters from aircraft flight data recorders;
  
• Wake vortex hazard research, especially: establishment of wake vortex encounter hazard threshold, encounter assessment tools, development of a wake vortex hazard metric, flight crew awareness and response techniques;
  
• Fusion of data from weather sensors and models for automated input into atmospheric prediction models (e.g., Terminal Area Simulation SystemÂ-TASS) used for assessments of atmospheric hazards to aviation and for initializing wake vortex prediction software;
  
• Innovations in sensors for detection of wake vortices as well as with weather sensors in support of wake vortex predictions;
  
• Measurements of wind, temperature, and turbulence from departing and arriving aircraft;
  
• Radar simulation tools for wake vortices.
  

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