Modeling Environmental Factors in Surface Traffic Optimization

Assesses environmental constraints in noise, emissions and fuel-efficiency

Modeling Environmental Factors in Surface Traffic Optimization (MEFISTO) directly addresses the needs of the NASA Airportal Project, to create tools and methods to assess environmental constraints in the noise, emissions and fuel-efficiency domains.  It extends earlier work with Dynamic Noise Avoidance Planner (DNAP) and Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS) that provide mitigation advisories in real-time that can be used by the surface planner to reduce environmental impacts.   The MEFISTO software interfaces between such environmental models and the surface traffic scheduler and estimates benefits that could be achieved if gates, taxiways and operational procedures were redesigned.

The principal objective of MEFISTO is to develop techniques to ensure all relevant environmental constraints are considered in the surface traffic optimization process. MEFISTO couples directly with foundational research in the Safe and Efficient Surface Operations (SESO) area, has inter-disciplinary linkages to Coordinated Arrival and Departure Operations Management (CADOM) and works in conjunction with Airportal Transition and Integration Management (ATIM).