ESTIMATING APPROACH PATH COVERAGE OF AIRCRAFT-DERIVED METEOROLOGICAL DATA IN ADVANCED AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT APPLICATIONS

摘要

If appropriately equipped, aircraft traveling throughout the global airspace have the uniquecapability to measure and report high-resolution meteorological data, under all weatherconditions. This data can have high economic value for both aviation and non-aviation uses bycommunicating a dense picture of weather conditions from thousands of ad hoc sensorsoperating daily in the global airspace over areas of an aviation operational interest. However,ensuring that the technology provides adequate levels of service and safety requires a clearunderstanding of system performance characteristics in conjunction with sensor and data linkcapabilities, broadcast frequencies, equipage rates, and operational service environmentrequirements.This paper explores the density of coverage as a measure of performance by presentingthe problem as a stochastic area coverage model of a homogeneous dynamic wireless ad hocsensor network. The model was developed by the MITRE Corporation in support of researchendeavors by the Federal Aviation Administration to relate the density needs of variousadvanced air traffic management applications to the spatial and temporal coverage of aircraft sensedmeteorological data in the airport terminal area. A comprehensive experimental design ispresented varying aircraft equipage rates, message broadcast frequency, coverage granularity andtraffic demand levels. Infrastructure and sensor limitations are included to capture some realismwithin the model. Results are determined by solving this variation on a traditional set coveringmodel using Monte Carlo simulation techniques.