With air traffic numbers increasing, a shift in the Air Traffic Management system towards 4D flight plans, where an aircraft trajectory is pre-planned in both time and space, is foreseen. When these pre-planned trajectories are subsequently executed, unforeseen airspace perturbations, such as weather, sequencing and changing airspace constraints, will inevitably require small changes in the trajectories to be made by the air traffic controller. This perturbation management control task will consist of ensuring a safe airspace while adhering to the strict time constraints imposed by the 4D flight plan. In collaboration with LVNL, a decision support interface was designed and evaluated with the aim of visualizing possible conflict resolutions in the 4D domain. A special focus was put on the integration of wind and trajectory uncertainty information into the interface.
Graduated: March 2020