Applications of a Terminal Area Flight Path Library

Air traffic operations in a Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON), the airspace surrounding a busy commercial airport, are quite dynamic. As arrival flights approach their landing runways, air traffic controllers apply speed, altitude, and heading directives to effect safe and orderly merging of converging air traffic flows. In some simulation models involving air traffic movement, a simplifying assumption has aircraft flying along straight-line paths in the TRACON. A direct path in the TRACON is simple to represent, but lacks fidelity with the real world. This path simplification is a limitation in modeling terminal area operations, and is a constraint when evaluating technological or operational changes in the terminal domain. As a remedy, we have created a library of TRACON paths using observed operational data. Collected data consists of ordered: latitude/longitude/altitude/time observations at 5-second intervals, from arrival fix to runway, or from runway to departure fix. Flow-specific geographic depictions of flight paths often show a wide splay, especially during busy periods when more extensive maneuvers are needed for merging and spacing. This diversity of paths implies additional flying time, and important noise and emissions impacts can be represented by sampling from this library. Employing higher fidelity TRACON paths is expected to improve accuracy in modeling flight delay and environmental impacts in the terminal area.