Sensitivity of national airspace system performance to disturbances: Modeling, identification from data, and use in planning

Abstract:

We study of the sensitivity of traffic flow management (TFM) performance in the United States National Airspace System (NAS) to disturbances, such as weather-driven capacity/flow variations and gradual changes in route usage. We make the argument that these sensitivities can be roughly computed using queueing models for flow-management actions, and so postulate that performance becomes much more sensitive to disturbance in congested airspace. Next, historical data on the sensitivity of TFM performance to weather and other uncertainties is used to support the postulate of increasing sensitivity with increased congestion. Finally, we put forth the idea that performance sensitivity information can aid in planning TFM (e.g., planning airspace reconfiguration or aircraft routing), by showing that optimally- or well-designed queue banks and queue networks have very special sensitivity structures and hence that planning actions should aim to achieve these structures. © 2008 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc.

Año de publicación:

2008

Keywords:

Fuente:

scopus