Airspace Design and Environmental Analysis

Noise Integrated Routing System

Overview
In support of the FAA and airport authorities, Metron Aviation has conducted numerous large-scale, multi-airport analyses of noise impacts for both low-altitude and high-altitude airspace changes. Metron Aviation developed NIRS (Noise Integrated Routing System), the FAA's standard regional noise model, to efficiently address the large scale requirements of modeling aircraft noise effects over mult-state regions.

Product Features
Altitude-control logic that enables NIRS aircraft to follow user-specified tracks Annualization logic enables NIRS to mix traffic from different configurations The NIRS impact table and impact graph quantatively assess differences in noise impact Various map-based tools for display and query of underlying noise data

Benefits
Metron Aviation developed NIRS starting with the first version in 1998, and continues adding new capabilities under contract to the FAA. Current capabilities provided by NIRS are:

Altitude-control logic that enables NIRS aircraft to follow user-specified tracks in three dimensions, or to follow “standard” profiles wherever these are consistent with the airspace design;

Annualization logic that enables NIRS to mix traffic from different operational configurations in the ratios appropriate to represent average annual airspace and runway usage;

The NIRS impact table and impact graph to quantitatively assess differences in noise impacts between alternative airspace designs using specific FAA noise-impact criteria;

Change-analysis logic that enables NIRS to specify which traffic elements (out of the many hundreds in regional studies ) are causing significant noise impacts;

Various map-based tools for display and query of the underlying track and noise data

NIRS provides a graphical user interface for ease of project control.

Deployment
NIRS has been successfully used to model regional noise effects in the Chicago and the Washington, DC metropolitan areas. NIRS has been selected as the primary noise model to be applied to National Airspace Redesign projects for the FAA. Currently NIRS is being used to model regional noise effects in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Omaha, Cleveland, Detroit, Anchorage, Orlando, Miami, and Houston.

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