Sensitivity of en-route scheduling to variable separation in the terminal area

摘要

NASA is developing a system that can provide dynamic wake vortex separation criteria by predicting the decay and transport of the vortices in various atmospheric conditions. ^Varying separation affects aircraft throughout the airspace, and the wake vortex system should be designed not to cause the controllers to continuously replan. ^Stability is defined as producing delays that can be absorbed solely by aircraft close to landing, instead affecting aircraft in a larger airspace. ^This paper examines the stability of the wake vortex system by way of parametric study. ^The parameters are the frequency and size of the separation changes, and their probability distributions. ^The transient behavior of the system delay under changing separation is examined; it is shown that for the same time, reductions in separation have a larger effect than increases. ^A linear relationship between the parameters producing a stable delay profile is calculated for the assumed probability distributions. ^(Author)