Finding Precursory Air Traffic Management Safety Metrics Using Exploration of Trajectory Radar Tracks
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 31, Issue 1
Abstract
The definition of a set of precursory safety metrics is critical to detect when an airspace is degrading in terms of safety and thus undesired effects are becoming more likely. Furthermore, safety metrics are paramount in the measurement of the impact of new operational procedures or technical improvements in the air traffic control system. The study presented in this paper introduces three safety metrics (reaction time performance indicator, time to closest point of approach performance indicator, and time to closest point of approach critical limit ratio) derived from a given airspace and a sizable, assorted traffic sample extracted from traffic surveillance track data. The metrics are used to characterize the airspace as a function of the safety outcome, which can be continuously overseen. The final goal of the safety metrics is to be used as an airspace safety warning system, where precursory metrics would signal the need to act to maintain the air traffic control system safety target in the face of operational, organizational, technical, or legal changes.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Cranfield University for its openness and hospitality, providing the corresponding author the opportunity to join its team and work along with the research group on ATM. Along with the continuous support from the UPM Air Navigation Research Group (GINA-UPM), an excellent environment has been created for the developing of this research work, hopefully the first of many collaboration between both research groups. Also, the authors would like to thank Consejo Social of UPM for its financial support to Rocío Barragán during her stay at Cranfield University. Special thanks to Nicolás Suárez Tetzlaff and Alan Ross Groskreutz for their selfless help building the paper, particularly reviewing the use of English.
References
Cózar Maldonado, J. A. (2015). “Desarrollo de un modelo de riesgo de colisión en espacios aéreos de área terminal.” Ph.D. thesis, Technical Univ. of Madrid, Madrid, Spain (in Spanish).
Cózar Maldonado, J. A., Sáez Nieto, F. J., and Ricaud Álvarez, E. (2015). “Radar track segmentation with cubic splines for collision risk models in high density terminal areas.” J. Aerosp. Eng., 229(8), 1371–1383.
EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency). (2014). “A harmonised European approach to a performance based environment (PBE).” Cologne, Germany.
Eurocontrol. (2016). “Annual report 2015.” Brussels, Belgium.
Eurocontrol Performance Review Commission. (2016). “Performance review report 2015: An assessment of air traffic management in Europe during the calendar year 2015.” Brussels, Belgium.
Ferrari, J. R. (2010). Still procrastinating: The no-regrets guide to getting it done, Wiley, New York.
García González, E. J. (2013). “Development of a 3-dimensional mathematical collision risk model based on recorded aircraft trajectories to estimate the safety level in high density en-route airspaces.” Ph.D. dissertation, Technical Univ. of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
García González, E. J., Nieto, F. J. S., and Izquierdo, M. I. (2007). “Identification and analysis of proximate events in high density enroute airspaces.” Proc., 7th USA/Europe Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar, Barcelona, Spain.
Hyndman, R. J., and Shang, H. L. (2010). “Rainbow plots, bagplots and boxplots for functional data.” J. Comput. Graph. Stat., 19(1), 29–45.
ICAO-APAC (International Civil Aviation Organization Asia and Pacific). (2007). “Guidance material on comparison of surveillance technologies (GMST).” ICAO, Beijing.
ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). (2005). “Doc 9854: Global air traffic management operational concept.” ICAO, Montreal.
ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). (2013a). “Annex 19: Safety management.” ICAO, Montreal.
ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). (2013b). “Doc 9859: Safety management manual.” ICAO, Montreal.
MATLAB [Computer software]. MathWorks, Natick, MA.
Perrin, E., Kirwan, B., and Stroup, R. (2007). “A systemic model of ATM safety: The integrated risk picture.” Proc., 7th USA/Europe Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar, FAA, Washington, DC.
Pozzi, S., et al. (2011). “Safety monitoring in the age of big data.” 9th USA/Europe Air Traffic Management Research and Development Seminar (ATM2011), FAA, Washington, DC.
Rousseeuw, P. J., Ruts, I., and Tukey, J. W. (1999). “The bagplot: A bivariate boxplot.” Am. Statistician, 53(4), 382–387.
Sáez Nieto, F. J., Arnaldo Valdés, R. M., García González, E. J., McAuley, G., and Izquierdo, M. I. (2010). “Development of a three-dimensional collision risk model tool to assess safety in high density en-route airspaces.” Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. G, 224(10), 1119–1129.
SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research). (2014). “D17-validation/verification of the SESAR accident incident model (AIM).” SESAR-JU, Brussels, Belgium.
SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research). (2016). “Transition ConOps SESAR 2020: Consolidated deliverable with contribution from operational federating projects.” SESAR-JU, Brussels, Belgium.
Sheridan, T. B. (2006). “Next generation air transportation systems: Human-automation interaction and organizational risks.” Proc., 2nd Symp. on Resilience Engineering, Presses des Mines, Antibes-Juan-les-Pins, France.
Suárez Tetzlaff, N., López de Frutos, P., Puntero Parla, E., and Rodríguez Gómez, S. (2014). “Quantifying air traffic controller mental workload.” Proc., 4th SESAR Innovation Days, SESAR-JU, Brussels, Belgium.
Tukey, J. W. (1975). “Mathematics and the picturing of data.” Proc., Int. Congress of Mathematicians, International Mathematical Union, Berlin, 523–531.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 31 • Issue 1 • January 2018
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 12, 2016
Accepted: Jun 23, 2017
Published online: Nov 15, 2017
Published in print: Jan 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Apr 15, 2018
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.