DEVELOPMENT OF CONFLICT-FREE UNRESTRICTED CLIMBS FOR A
TERMINAL AREA DEPARTURE TOOL

Yoon C. Jung and Douglas R. Isaacson


Abstract

The Expedite Departure Path (EDP) is a decision
support tool being developed at NASA Ames
Research Center aimed at providing Terminal Area
Radar Approach Control (TRACON) Traffic
Management Coordinators (TMCs) with pertinent
departure traffic loading and scheduling information
and radar controllers with advisories for tactical
control of terminal area departure traffic. One of the
proposed features of EDP is to provide departure
controllers with the ability to perform unrestricted
climbs where procedures typically restrict departures
below incoming arrival traffic streams. The
potential benefits of this feature include reductions in
time-to-climb, fuel burn, and aircraft noise impact to
the surrounding communities. This paper focuses on
the issue of unrestricted climb in congested terminal
areas and describes the modeling and simulation of
such climbs. First, flight data of departures in
TRACON airspace were analyzed to estimate the
level of uncertainties in climb trajectory prediction.
Second, the existing Trajectory Synthesizer (TS)
module of the Center-TRACON Automation System
(CTAS) was modified to generate trajectories that
closely model actual aircraft climb profiles and
terminal airspace procedures. Third, an algorithm
was applied to predict conflicts between trajectories
of departure and arrival aircraft and to determine if an
unrestricted climb is advisable. Controller-in-the-loop
simulations were performed to validate the
feasibility of the algorithm and evaluate human
factors. Lastly, a future application of a conflict
probability estimation method for EDP was
examined.