Dynamic Weather Routes Tool

The Flight Awareness Collaboration Tool (FACT) user interface is a quad design with four areas. The Primary Map View shows the US with several traffic and weather overlays. The Surface Map View displays the selected airport with information on runway conditions and other factors. The Information View has specific data from various sources about the area of interest. This view also has a built-in algorithm that predicts the impact of the forecast winter weather on airport capacity. The Communication View supports messaging within the geographically-dispersed team that is using FACT. When an airport is selected in the Primary Map View, the information presented in the Surface Map and Information Views is focused on that choice. FACT is a web-based application using Node.js and MongoDB. It receives Java messages from the Federal Aviation Administration System Wide Information Management (SWIM) data repository. Data acquired from web pages and SWIM are tailored for FACTs Information View area. FACT is designed to reside on an existing workstation monitor to be put into use as needed.

The NASA software application developed under the TASAR project is called the Traffic Aware Planner (TAP). TAP automatically monitors for flight optimization opportunities in the form of lateral and/or vertical trajectory changes. Surveillance data of nearby aircraft, using ADS-B IN technology, are processed to evaluate and avoid possible conflicts resulting from requested changes in the trajectory. TAP also leverages real-time connectivity to external information sources, if available, of operational data relating to winds, weather, restricted airspace, etc., to produce the most acceptable and beneficial trajectory-change solutions available at the time. The software application is designed for installation on low-cost Electronic Flight Bags that provide read-only access to avionics data. The user interface is also compatible with the popular iPad. FAA certification and operational approval requirements are expected to be minimal for this non-safety-critical flight-efficiency application, reducing implementation cost and accelerating adoption by the airspace user community. Awarded "2016 NASA Software of the Year"

National Airspace System (NAS) Constraint Evaluation and Notification Tool (NASCENT) employs a NAS-wide simulation and analysis infrastructure that implements airspace constraint avoidance algorithms for efficient routing. NASCENT uses NASA-developed aircraft performance tables for computing climb, cruise, and descent trajectories. Reference routes are created that save more than a user-specified number (e.g., five) minutes of flying-time savings. The return capture fix for the reference route is the last fix on the current flight plan within a limit region (derived using this patented technology). A Maneuver Start Point is selected to allow time for coordination of the reroute with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). These routes are checked against the weather polygons, FAA denoted Special Use Airspaces (e.g., Military Operations Areas) and Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs); and additional waypoints are added to avoid these airspace constraints. The wind-corrected flying-time savings are reported for each flight. The polygons are first converted into convex hulls and inflated by a user-specified number of nautical miles (e.g., 20, for weather) to account for the FAA requirements. Lateral and/or vertical advisories are created using a binary tree search along the left-side and right-side, up to the return capture fix, to find a minimum-deviation delay solution. The NASCENT system provides notification for congested sectors along the current flight plan and the proposed avoidance route, along with flights impacted by FAA imposed required Traffic Management Initiatives (TMIs, reroutes, Ground Delay Programs, etc.). The reroutes can be implemented with no changes required to the current FAA operational infrastructure.

Actual air traffic data and weather information are utilized to evaluate an aircrafts flight-plan route and predict its trajectories for the climb, cruise, and descent phases. The dynamics for heading (the direction the aircraft nose is pointing) and airspeed are also modeled by the FACET software, while performance parameters, such as climb/descent rates and speeds and cruise speeds, can also be obtained from data tables. The resulting trajectories and traffic flow data are presented in a 3-D graphical user interface. The FACET software is modular and is written in the Java and C programming languages. Notable FACET applications include reroute conformance monitoring algorithms that have been implemented in one of the Federal Aviation Administrations nationally deployed, real-time operational systems.

Langley has developed various technologies to enable the portable detection system, including: - 3-inch electret condenser microphone - unprecedented sensitivity of -45 dB/Hz - compact nonporous windscreen - suitable for replacing spatially demanding soaker hoses in current use - infrasonic calibrator for field use - piston phone with a test signal of 110 dB at 14Hz. - laboratory calibration apparatus - to very low frequencies - vacuum isolation vessel - sufficiently anechoic to permit measurement of background noise in microphones at frequencies down to a few Hz - mobile source for reference - a Helmholtz resonator that provides pure tone at 19 Hz The NASA system uses a three-element array in the field to locate sources of infrasound and their direction. This information has been correlated with PIREPs available in real time via the Internet, with 10 examples of good correlation.