Future ATM Operational Concepts

Local Collaboration
ARTCC TFM Airline Operational Control

Overview
NASA's Distributed Air/Ground Traffic Management (DAG-TM) concept of operations is a gate-to-gate concept envisioned for Free Flight operations. DAG-TM has 15 Concept Elements (CEs). Under NASA's new Efficient Aircraft Spacing (EAS) Project, two DAG-TM CEs will be developed:

CE 7: Collaboration for Mitigating Local Traffic Flow Management (TFM) Constraints due to Weather, Special Use Airspace (SUA), and Complexity
CE 8: Collaboration for User-Preferred Arrival Metering

In CE 7 & 8, the Air Traffic Service Provider (ATSP) and Airline Operational Control (AOC) participate in Collaborative Decision Making (CDM); the flight deck is not expected to play a significant role. The ATSP personnel correspond to Traffic Management Coordinators (TMCs) staffing a Center's Traffic Management Unit (TMU) in today's operations. The Center-level collaboration between TMU and AOC personnel envisioned under DAG-TM operates along a shorter planning horizon relative to today's national-level CDM program between airlines and the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC). Consequently, all TMU-AOC collaboration must be consistent with any ATCSCC restrictions in effect. If properly executed, ATSP collaboration with AOC to solve problems at the Center level can reduce the need for (and scope of) national level traffic flow initiatives such as ground delay programs (GDPs) or miles-in-trail (MIT) restrictions propagating across several Centers.

Research and Development
Relies on field observations to identify the current local collaboration and potential areas of future collaboration between Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs) and AOCs. ATCSCC observation of role in National CDM Requirements for a Local Collaboration Decision Support Tool (DST) are being developed

Development
Metron Aviation is also developing the Automated Airport Surface Traffic Control. The airport surface of the future will include much more automation compared to today. Metron Aviation is developing surface management algorithms for coordinating runway configuration changes based on forecasted wind shifts, automated planning of taxi routes, and management of taxi queues, surface movement control that accounts for de-icing and snow removal, and new displays that assist pilots and controllers in low and zero visibility operations at airport.

 

 

 

Local Collaboration Concept

 

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