Satellite Navigation - GBAS - Benefits

Ground Based Augmentation System - Benefits

The FAA is developing GBAS to expand upon the capabilities afforded by satellite navigation. Specifically, GBAS offers benefits in the areas of capacity, efficiency, user benefits, and airport/surrounding community benefits.

Capacity Benefits

GBAS will support complex procedures and terminal area paths that will compress the density of terminal operations without impacting safety, thus increasing capacity. It will de-conflict airspace through extended PVT ranges, reduce aircraft separation requirements and obstacle clearance requirements through more precise ground track paths. GBAS will provide the ability to change or create approach procedures without infrastructure changes, and also provide the ability to implement multiple, segmented, or variable glide slopes. In addition, a single GBAS system supports approaches at multiple runway ends, which will eliminate critical areas.

Efficiency Benefits

The efficiency benefits of the GBAS system include reduced air traffic controller workloads through reduced communications and radar vectoring. Other efficiency benefits include reduced time and distance in the terminal area, leading to fuel savings which is a huge cost savings to operators. The GBAS will allow for an increase in IFR availability, complex rollouts, and extended arrival procedures (50-160nm).

User Benefits

GBAS terminal area path (TAP) procedures will be uplinked to the aircraft, which eliminates the need for an in-aircraft procedure database. In addition, GBAS will eventually support low-powered continuous descent arrivals.

Uplinking the GBAS TAP procedures ahead of time allows the aircrew additional time to prepare the aircraft for landing and do it all in an optimal sequence will be truly beneficial to end users. Exacting aircraft locations and approximate times of arrival at key points along the TAP are critical to improving their operations in the terminal area and offer the user significant benefits.

Airport and Community Benefits

While many airports seek to expand their facilities and operations to serve current and expected future demand for air travel, the communities surrounding airports also continue to expand, filling previously unused land in the vicinity of the airports. One result is a growing concern about aviation related noise and its impact on these communities. Airlines and airframe manufacturers have worked together to significantly reduce the noise produced by modern aircraft, but noise generation remains a problem for many airports. More precise navigation offered by GBAS in the terminal area may provide an opportunity to greatly reduce the impact of aviation related noise by restricting aircraft to defined three dimensional routes designed to reduce the noise effects. Through the flexibility offered by GBAS to construct complex, defined, highly repeatable flight paths that can be used during all weather conditions, the current costs associated with noise mitigation and noise abatement may be reduced.

Alaska Volcano Information

The links below provide additional advisories about Alaskan volcano activity.

• Volcanic Ash Advisory Center
• Alaska Volcano Observatory
• USGS Volcano Website
• Interagency Volcano Plan 2011(PDF)

Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS)

There are a variety of essential activities that must take place in order to develop a safety-critical precision navigation system, such as GBAS. To address these activities, the GBAS program consists of several functional areas:

• GBAS Research and Development (R&D) – GBAS R&D currently focuses on Category II/III Specification Development.
• GBAS System Engineering (SE) – GBASSE activities support the Category I GBAS Honeywell contract for the development of the provably safe prototype (PSP) at Memphis, and System Design Approval Process related to obtaining a CAT I Non-Federal Regulatory Approval. Specific tasks include:
  • Development of GBAS specifications
  • Coordination of GBAS siting issues
  • Consideration of safety issues
  • Review of contract execution for the PSP development
  • Conduct contractual flight evaluations and analyses
  • Conduct contract stability testing and analyses
• GBAS System Operational Implementation – This function helps to ensure that the overall GBAS concept is being properly implemented.
• GBAS System Security – The GBAS security function helps to ensure entities without proper authorization cannot utilize or compromise the GBAS.
• GBAS Contracts/Finance – The contracts/finance function manages the activities pertaining to CAT I development contract cost, schedule, and performance; and also reviews all deliverables.
• GBAS Business Management – This function supports and manages the GBAS budget process.

To ensure a smooth and successful transition of the GBAS into the FAA's other lines of business and into the National Airspace System, there are several other FAA organizations involved in the development, acquisition, and commissioning of the GBAS.

These other FAA organizations include:

• FAANAS In-Service Management – These are FAA personnel who support the Deployment Planning Process, and Standard Operating Procedures.
• FAA Navigation Systems Engineering – These are the FAA personnel who provide policy oversight on system engineering functions, such as human factors, security, and configuration management.
• FAA National Airways Systems Engineering Division – These are the FAA personnel located at the FAA Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who support software and system design activities.
• FAA Aircraft Certification Service – These are FAA headquarter personnel who set requirements based on FAA certification criteria to ensure the GBAS is safe to use by aircraft operating in the National Airspace System. Support activities include requirements documentation, safety assurance, and RTCA and GNSSP support.
• FAA Flight Procedure Standards Branch – This group is responsible for developing rules, standards, policies, and criteria governing the operational aspects of en route, terminal, and instrument flight procedures (except air traffic control procedures), and also develops and establishes criteria for civil and military terminal instrument procedures.
• Aviation System Standards National Flight Procedures Office – This FAA group, located in Oklahoma City, performs instrument flight procedures development and maintenance functions.
• Air Traffic – This FAA group helps to ensure that FAA Air Traffic Services' operational needs are satisfied.
• William J. Hughes Technical Center – Supports GBAS system engineering activities and provides GBAS ground facility and GBAS avionics test support.

Performance Data Analysis and Reporting System (PDARS)

The Performance Data Analysis and Reporting System (PDARS) is a FAA NAS System designed as an integrated performance measurement tool that facilitates operational analysis to improve the NAS. The system consists of a dedicated network of computers located at FAA sites that use specialized software for collecting detailed air traffic management system data.

The PDARS system includes 20 domestic Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC's), 28 Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities, 27 ASDE-X equipped airports.  PDARS is also used at FAA Service Area Offices, the Air Traffic Control System Command Center, the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center, and FAA Headquarters.

As a NAS system, the data contained in the PDARS system is intended for government use only. The PDARs data differs from other NAS data in that it is enhanced to provide quality controlled flight track data.

Key Features of PDARS
The addition of event information to the flight track data provides data that can be readily analyzed and support metric and reporting needs. It is the FAA’s only mechanism to provide Gate to Gate analysis. FAA personnel use the PDARS system extensively to assist in monitoring, measuring, analyzing, and managing operations on a day-to-day basis.

Flight Trajectory Synthesis: Collects flight data from multiple surveillance systems, merging track points into end-to-end trajectories, and producing quality-controlled analysis-ready data

Comprehensive View of the NAS: performs a complex coordination and integration of processed flight data with cyclical geo-referenced data sources including weather, airspace, airports, navigational objects, traffic flow management, and geographic data

Key Flight Event Detection: detects key flight events using business rules and metric definitions verified over 15 years of operation, including Airspace Crossings, Runway Assignment, Modes of Flight, Level Flight, Go-Arounds, Handoffs, Holding, and Fix Passing

Visualization and Animation: Displays multi-dimensional viewing of flight activity and airspace, animation replays of historical data using 3D and 4D visualization for operational analysis, and flightdata filtering

Performance Databases

The Federal Aviation Administration maintains four core databases that are used to produce the operational metrics that are tracked and reported in order to manage and improve FAA efficiency. The Aviation System Performance Metrics (ASPM) database is the most comprehensive flight database with key event times and operational information necessary for producing most performance measures. The OPSNET database contains FAA imposed delay, often at the flight level. Flight Trajectory contains key event times extracted from archived flight plan messages as well as from flight position data. Fuel Burn data is provided by the airlines for key city pairs and is used to meet congressional requirements to evaluate fuel trends experienced by the airline industry.

ASPM constitutes the most comprehensive flight level database used for performance analysis within FAA.It contains a host of key event times including actual, scheduled as well as the airline reported gate and runway times. It also synthesizes key times from the traffic flow management system and links flight level information from the National Traffic Management Log (NTML).

OPSNET provides the official source for traffic operations and reportable delay. Reportable delay includes the causal information such as the constrained facility, the reason for delay (weather, equipment, runways etc.) and the traffic management initiative employed in delaying the aircraft.

Flight Trajectory database is used for performance measures that assess if flights are obtaining more efficient trajectories or if problem areas are emerging. The flight level data compares actual trajectories to both direct flight or a best achieved flight. In response to congressional request, the flight level data also tracks continuous ascent and continuous descent operations.

Fuel Burn database contains per flight fuel consumption data for select city pairs. The data is provided on a voluntary basis by airlines and air cargo operators in response to a congressional requirement, and is used to analyze the operational performance of the NAS and the benefits of operational improvements.

Simulation Tools

The Performance Analysis Office has developed a suite of simulation tools that allows FAA management to evaluate changes in operational efficiency due to anticipated changes in the NAS. This data allows the program office to address problems prior to the day of operations. Specific tools have been developed for the NAS system, the airport level and the oceanic environment. The models use airspace/airport capacities, traffic schedules and weather as input and produce delay, throughput statistics and other performance measures as output.

The office also produces standardized operational schedules that are provided for all FAA planning and investment analysis projects. These baseline and future projection schedules are updated annually using optimization software that selects 16 sample days that best approximate flight activity (Airport and Center) and delay (Total Delay, Weather Delay) across all FAA facilities. The sample includes 2 uniform busy days that can be used for benchmarking. The schedules are provided for both fast-time and human in the loop simulation projects.

NEXTOR

The National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR) was established on June 26, 1996 as one of the five Centers of Excellence created by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This program is managed by the ATO Office of Performance Analysis and allows FAA and other government agencies to partner with leading universities in research that furthers improvements in aviation efficiency.

Since 1996, NEXTOR has produced numerous papers, theses and doctoral dissertations and has engaged in formal knowledge and personnel exchange activities. These initiatives have been instrumental in the successful transfer and sharing of new technologies and have helped to educate and prepare the next generation of aviation professionals.

Principle areas of NEXTOR research include tactical and strategic traffic management, safety and security, system performance, weather impact, aviation infrastructure, economic analysis, model development and training.

For more details on NEXTOR, please visit the website below:

Center of Excellence University Research Studies (NEXTOR)

Capacity Analysis

Aviation performance is largely dependent on capacity as improvements or degradations in operational performance is most often linked to an imbalance of demand and capacity. FAA Performance Analysis has developed an extensive modeling and analysis capability for establishing capacity values for facilities at different thresholds for delay and determining the changes in capacity that will occur due to runway construction or through new technology or new procedures.

Ground-Based Navigation - Contacts

Ground-Based Navigation - Contacts

• Lansine Touré, Manager – 202-267-3018
• Lesly Samedy, Team Lead – 202-267-5213
• Tennille Blackwell, Business Manager – 202-267-6247
• Marie Cineus, Administrative Assistant – 202-267-9906

Lighting Systems - Contacts

Lighting Systems - Contacts

• Lansine Touré, Manager - 202-267-3018
• John Varas, Team Lead – 202-267-4539
• Tennille Blackwell, Business Manager – 202-267-6247
• Marie Cineus, Administrative Assistant – 202-267-9906