!irspace Systems Program Newsletter

National !eronautics and Space !dministration 

FY 2014 Quarter 3 !pril-- June 2014

This Issue 

Technical/Programmatic Highlights 

Technology Transfer & Deployment P.2

Collaborations and Partnerships P.3

Ongoing Research P.6

Recognition, !wards and Publications P.10

GE Aviation and GE Global Research Explore DWR, 

May 20--21, 2014

GE Aviation Systems and GE Global Research have expressed strong interest in the DWR concept and software, sending seven staff members to ARC 

to work with ASP’s DWR software team. GE’s objective for the visit was to 

get hands-on time with the start-up and operation of DWR using live and recorded traffic and weather feeds. As described by Brian Adams, GE Product 

Marketing Director, Air Traffic Management, GE has focused on data mining 

to uncover inefficiencies in all aspects of airline operations and is interested 

in investigating the use of DWR as a basis for making real -time corrections 

to inefficiencies in their airline customer’s operations. During the two-day 

meeting, ASP provided a tutorial on DWR, and held detailed discussions and 

hands -on demonstrations regarding the software, the automation concept, and 

results from ASP’s trial of DWR at American Airlines. The GE team seemed 

very pleased with the visit, and are eager to move to the next step, which includes contacting the Ames Technology Partnerships Division to inquire 

about licensing the DWR software. (POC: Dave McNally) 

Dynamic Weather Routes: 

Overview for Technology 

Transfer Webinar 

April 29, 2014 

Presented by Dave McNally, Kapil Sheth, Hassan Eslami, and 

Chester Gong. This webinar describes the trajectory automation 

concept, the prototype system 

including the required input data 

feeds, potential benefits to airspace users, and results from operational testing at American Airlines. The recording of the webinar is now available. 

Webinar presenters (left to right): 

Hassan Eslami, Dave McNally, 

Kapil Sheth, and Chester Gong 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Screenshot of StormGen

 

Graphical user interface showing a trial Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) 

DWR Software Upgrade for American Airlines Trial System, 

May 9, 2014 

The Dynamic Weather Routes (DWR) software that supports the operational trial of 

DWR at the American Airlines Integrated Operations Center in Fort Worth, TX 

completed its most recent upgrade. The primary improvement in this version of 

DWR was to increase air traffic coverage from one en route center, Fort Worth Center, to five en route centers total by expanding to the first-tier adjacent centers 

(Albuquerque, Kansas City, Memphis, and Houston). The upgrade provides more 

potential flying time savings for all flights, gives users more advance notice on potential reroutes for flights overflying the primary home center (Fort Worth Center), 

and is the basis for new research aimed at improving weather-avoidance routes for 

flights nearing busy destination airports, like Dallas/Fort Worth, when convective 

weather impacts merging arrival flows. (POC: Dave McNally) 

FAA Deployment of EDA Update, June 20, 2014 

ASP recently collaborated with the FAA in preparation for critical design and implementation decisions regarding the second-phase deployment of the Efficient Descent 

Advisor (EDA). ASP transferred EDA in November 2011 under the 3D Path Arrival 

Management (3D-PAM) Research Transition Team. The first-phase deployment, 

which provides speed advisories to meet scheduled arrival times at the TRACON 

boundary, is on target for its initial operating capability at Albuquerque Center in 

September 2014. The second-phase deployment adds lateral path advisories (“Path 

Stretching”) to conform to a wider range of metering times and also includes automated conflict avoidance capabilities that minimize disruptions to continuous descents downstream. EDA is intended to provide the metering precision at the terminal airspace boundary required by ASP’s Terminal Sequencing and Spacing (TSS) 

concept, which further enables continuous descents to the runway in the presence of 

traffic constraints. FAA’s Time-Based Flow Management (TBFM) operations team 

and their NATCA representative have declared their support for Path Stretching in 

the next TBFM Work Package (WP3), scheduled for a final investment decision 

(FID) in December 2014, and a field deployment in 2018. ASP supported the FAA in 

defining detailed requirements for Path Stretching in WP3, in a recent requirements 

workshop held in Washington DC on June 25, 2014. (POC: Rich Coppenbarger) 

StormGen in use at 

Boeing, March 2014 

In a recent communication, Russell 

White, engineer with The Human 

Systems Technology group of the 

Boeing Research & Technology 

organization, stated that the 

StormGen interactive convective 

weather editor has proven to be a 

key weather data resource as the 

tool they use to develop their 

weather scenarios for simulation 

research. StormGen was developed 

at Ames Research Center (ARC), 

and released to Boeing Commercial Aviation in April 2013. For 

their 787 research flight simulator 

cab, a Boeing team is working on a 

correlated view of the weather on 

the out-the-window image, the 

weather radar image on the navigation display, and on other instrument displays. Having completed 

the first version of a cockpit weather radar, the capability of 

StormGen to produce 3D weather 

is important to Boeing's plans to 

improve their weather radar model 

to be a more faithful emulation of 

the actual 787 weather radar, with 

features such as tilt, range, and variable field-of-view. 

(POC: Walt Johnson) 

Each storm cell can have 

multiple low, medium, and high 

intensity shells, corresponding to 

low, medium, and high radar 

moisture reflectivity
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ASP Presents ATM Research to Visiting 

DLR Delegation, March 24-25, 2014

Airspace Systems Program (ASP) researchers participated in 

the visit of the delegation from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsche Zentrum für Luft und Raumfahrt, or DLR) to 

ARC. Professor Rolf Henke (Executive Board, Aeronautics), Mr. Horst Hüners (Aeronautics Program Director), 

and Professor Dirk Kügler (Director of the DLR Braun 

schweig Institute of Flight Guidance) attended, along with 

staff from the DLR Bureau in Washington, DC. Research 

staff presented information on modeling environmental mitigation strategies, surface automation research, controller 

managed spacing for the Air traffic Management Technolo 

gy Demonstration 1 (ATD 1) and also provided demonstrations and tours of the Vertical Motion Simulator, FutureFlight Central, and the Advanced Concepts Flight Simulator. 

(POC: Katharine Lee) 

ASP Hosts a Technical Interchange Meeting 

with Researchers from NLR, 

March 24-25, 2014

ASP hosted two researchers from the National Aerospace 

Laboratory (Nationaal Lucht en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium 

(NLR), the Netherlands. This NASA/NLR collaboration is 

focused on airport surface traffic management, and both or 

ganizations are working toward integrating NLR’s surface 

conflict detection functionality, called the Separation Bubble 

Tool (SBT), into ASP s SARDA tool adapted to Charlotte 

International Airport (CLT). The integrated functionality 

will be tested in a future SARDA human in the loop simulation at Ames’ FutureFlight Central (FFC) facility. The SARDA tool and NLR’s SBT each operates in distinct portions 

of the airport surface, with SARDA focusing in the ramp 

area and SBT operating in taxiways and runways. The 

ASP/NLR teams successfully provided additional CLT traffic scenarios to the NLR team, and defined the connectivity 

protocol for use in a real time simulation environment. The 

team is now investigating the information technology requirements in order to performing an initial integration of 

SARDA and SBT. (POC: Ty Hoang) 

Langley Engineer Invited to Join Japanese 

Air Traffic Management Technical 

Committee 

William C. Johnson, was recently invited by the Japanese 

Electronic Navigation Research Institute (ENRI) to join an 

ENRI Technical Program Committee (TPC). As a TPC 

member, Mr. Johnson will participate in organizing technical 

sessions, reviewing papers and contributing to planning the 

technical program for the upcoming ENRI International 

Workshop on Air Traffic Management and Communication, 

Navigation, and Surveillance (EIWAC2015) to be held in 

Tokyo in November of next year. Mr. Johnson is the third 

international TPC member and the only member from the 

United States. He will be travelling to Tokyo twice next 

year in this role with all travel expenses graciously provided 

by ENRI. (POC: William Johnson) 

NASA University Research Center 

"CHAAT" Continues to Deliver Researchers 

and Results, 

April 8-9, 2014

ASP Research staff from ARC visited the Center for Human 

factors in Advanced Aeronautics Technologies (CHAAT) 

laboratory at California State University at Long Beach, to 

conduct their annual site visit and technical review. For the 

past five years, CHAAT has been conducting research and 

development under NASA's support as a University Research Center (URC), one of 14 such grantees nationwide. In 

that time, CHAAT has developed into an impressive multi 

disciplinary research center that is making substantive con 

tributions to human factors in air traffic management in sup 

port of the ASP and the Integrated Systems Research Pro 

grams (ISRP). In 2013 14, CHAAT faculty and students 

conducted human in the loop (HITL) simulations in their 

laboratory in partnership with ASP and also supported HITL 

simulations at Ames, including Single Pilot Operations 

(SPO) and Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS). Graduates of the program 

have been essential members on a number of research teams 

at Ames for several years now. CHAAT has also supported 

and/or led an impressive array of outreach programs to foster 

interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, aviation, and NASA among a variety of underrepresented groups. (POCs: Todd Farley, Savvy 

Verma, and Mary Connors) 
 

 

 

 

 

 

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ASP Researchers Visit American Airlines to 

Discuss Research Collaboration, April 15, 2014 

ASP researchers visited the American Airlines (AA) Headquarters near the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport to continue discussions concerning possible collaborations involving ASP, AA, and Stanford University, that grew from discussions 

between the parties at Stanford in February 2014. The meeting was hosted by 

AA’s Operations Research and Advanced Analytics group, which provides analytical consulting and decision support tools for multiple AA business units. 

ASP shared research on understanding and modeling airline behavior and the 

Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) usage of traffic management initiatives. The teams discussed research collaboration opportunities and AA’s plans 

for participating in 

Collaborative Trajectory Options Pro 

grams, which are a 

new type of traffic 

management initiative. ASP, AA, and 

Stanford participants hope to con 

tinue the discussion 

to find a mutually 

beneficial area of 

collaboration and 

research. 

(POCs: Michael 

Bloem and William N. Chan) 

Boeing Physiological Training, April 18, 2014 

Lou Glaab, Bryan Barmore, and Terry Abbott attended required physiology and 

flight test training at the Boeing facility in Seattle, Washington, in preparation for 

an upcoming flight test being planned to demonstrate FIM technology in collaboration with the Boeing Company. Flight Deck Interval Management technology 

involves pilots establishing and maintaining precise spacing intervals using on 

board algorithms and displays to provide increased capacity for the NAS. The 

flight test demonstration will involve NASA personnel operating a specially con 

figured laptop in the cabin of the B787 aircraft and relaying updated speed commands via intercom to the crew in the cockpit to enable them to precisely follow 

a target vehicle. The required training covered physiological aspects of flight 

testing along with Boeing’s test procedures and conduct. A meeting with Boeing 

Eco Demonstrator personnel regarding the flight test was also conducted during 

the visit. Overall, the training was valuable, providing comprehensive safety and 

procedural information regarding Boeing flight testing. The flight test is currently planned for July 2014. (POC: Bryan Barmore) 

DWR user display at American Airlines Integrated 

Operations Control Center, Fort Worth, Texas 

JAXA Visit to Discuss 

Terminal Automation and 

Noise Mitigation Collaboration, June 6, 2014 

ASP hosted a meeting with Mr. 

Hirokazu Ishii, a researcher from 

the Japanese Aerospace Exploration 

Agency (JAXA) under a cooperative agreement between NASA and 

JAXA that was signed in May 2014. 

Mr. Ishii is JAXA’s technical lead 

for noise modeling research and 

briefed this work as part of JAXA’s 

Distributed and Revolutionarily Efficient Air Traffic Management System (DREAMS) project where they 

are developing noise abatement concepts for future air traffic management systems. Rich Coppenbarger 

presented terminal area research 

activities on the Efficient Descent 

Advisor and Ron Johnson presented 

on Terminal Sequencing and Spacing, as well as research aimed at 

developing computationally efficient noise modeling algorithms for 

trajectory optimization, including a 

Google Earth-based tool to evaluate 

aircraft noise impacts. The 

ASP/JAXA collaboration in this 

area will be focused on developing a 

computational-efficient aircraft 

noise model considering the effect 

of meteorological conditions on 

noise propagation. It was agreed 

that ASP and JAXA have a common 

interest in optimizing trajectories to 

minimize noise and emissions in the 

presence of increasing traffic volume, and that this work is longerterm in nature. Both groups will 

brainstorm further within their organizations to identify specific collaboration opportunities and exchange ideas at a future meeting. 

(POCs: Rich Coppenbarger and 

Neil Chen). 
 

 

 

 

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Meeting with the Dutch 

Aerospace Laboratory and Knowledge Development Center, June 6, 2014 

Dr. Bryan Barmore attended a meeting at NLR in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for a review of their Interval Management research. NASA has a collaborative agreement with 

the NLR to study Interval Management operations for 

Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. For noise abatement reasons, aircraft arriving at Schiphol will soon be required to 

stay on fixed arrival procedures instead of allowing air traffic controllers to vector the aircraft. Without additional tools 

and procedures, this is expected to reduce airport capacity 

and increase delay during daytime operations. The Dutch 

Air Navigation Service Provider, KLM Airlines and the 

Schiphol Airport Authority and formed a government 

industry coalition to research and develop advanced air traffic operations. One of their focuses is on Interval Management where the controller instructs the aircraft to achieve a 

specific spacing behind another aircraft. The flight crew, 

using on board automation, manages the aircraft s speed to 

achieve this goal. It is expected that Interval Management 

operations will allow for the use of fixed arrival routes with 

out a decrease in capacity. These goals and operations are 

similar to ASP’s ATD 1. NASA and NLR are sharing 

knowledge and results to improve both operations. 

This meeting focused on reviewing an up coming NLR 

study looking at controller acceptability of Interval Management as well as the need for automation support. Data is 

expected to be collected the last week of June and results 

shared with NASA later in the summer. There were also 

preliminary discussions of a future flight test in the Netherlands, possibly using an avionics prototype that NASA is 

developing. Additional discussions on the flight test will 

occur later this fall after NLR has secured funding for the 

activity. 

14th AIAA ATIO 2014 Conference, June 19, 

2014 

Dr. Parimal Kopardekar, Dr. Danette Allen and Dr. Mark 

Moore have been invited to participate in a special panel at 

Aviation 2014 in Atlanta, GA. The panel will be co 

moderated by Dr. Kopardekar and Dr. Allen, and Dr. Moore 

will serve as a panel member. This panel will discuss 

emerging opportunities in low altitude airspace in various 

parts of the world, and discuss vehicles and the airspace op 

erations system that is needed to safely enable these operations. The low altitude airspace operations will include but 

not be limited to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and personal air vehicles. The emerging businesses will include but 

not be limited to applications related to agriculture, entertainment, search and rescue, and cargo delivery. (POC: Dr. 

Danette Allen) 

Drs. Nashat Ahmad and Fred Proctor met with Dr. Frank 

Holzapfel of DLR at the conference to discuss the ongoing 

joint research and planned milestones for wake research 

under the NASA DLR agency level collaboration agreement. Dr. Ahmad presented NASA’s progress on the development of the joint NASA/DLR wake vortex ensemble 

model in the presentation entitled, “Multi model Ensemble 

Models for Wake Vortex Modeling” (co authored by Ahmad, VanValkenburg, and Gloudemans). DLR’s progress 

was presented by Stephan Koerner from Stuttgart, Germany 

via Lync. The two sides held useful discussions on the feasibility of different ensemble techniques for wake applications, methodologies for model evaluation, the possibility of 

data exchange for model evaluation and on joint publication(s). The goal is to provide a validated wake vortex prediction model that can be used in support of the development and use of new procedures in the National Airspace 

System. (POC: Nashat Ahmad) 

ENAC Researchers Collaborate with ASP, June 9 13, 2014 

Dr. Daniel Delahaye, Head of Optimization Group, Ecole Nationale de l Aviation Civile (ENAC), Toulouse, France and 

Ms. Olga Rodionova, a researcher in the group, visited ARC. ENAC is a French aviation oriented university conducting 

research in air transportation and offering training for controllers and pilots. Dr. Delahaye has developed optimization techniques for European air traffic, separating aircraft trajectories prior to departure. Recently, Dr. Banavar Sridhar and a group 

of ASP researchers have developed wind optimal routes for transatlantic flights and evaluated the potential benefits for 

various city pairs and aircraft types compared with the current North Atlantic Tracks. Dr. Sridhar and Dr. Delahaye are 

collaborating on combining their techniques to develop wind optimal routes with separation constraints. A joint paper 

based on this collaboration is planned for the USA/Europe Air Traffic Management R&D conference in 2015. (POC: Dr. 

Banavar Sridhar) 
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Lack or c oordination or 

TMI• 

Literature Review to Characterize Causes of Delay and Inefficiency in the Integrated 

Arrival, Departure, and Surface (IADS) Domain 

To support the on going planning for the next Air Traffic 

Management (ATM) Technology Demonstration (ATD 2), 

Crown Consulting Inc. (CCI) was asked to perform a review of the literature in the arrival, departure and surface 

domains with the specific purposes of determining the major causes of delay and inefficiencies and the magnitude of 

their impact. The results aided the ATD-2 planning team to

focus on the issues of greatest potential benefit. Ideally this 

information would be obtained through systematic analysis 

of the IADS domain but such an analysis would take more 

time than is available to the planning team. 

The analysis began by identifying papers of interest using a 

standard key word search. As expected, this turned up a 

very large number of hits. Papers of interest were selected 

by scanning titles to choose those that were relevant. The 

process was continued until the point was reached when the 

remaining papers were off topic. Approximately 100 reports were selected by this process. A separate search was 

conducted for papers developed from NASA research. This 

search was simplified because the Aeronautics Research 

Mission Directorate (ARMD) Analysis Board (AAB) had 

already compiled a list of ARMD reports through the work 

of analysts at Langley and Ames. This AAB list was 

scanned and the papers of most interest selected. Initially 

this yielded about 15 papers of primary interest with links 

to many other related papers. 

To make sense out of this large array of information and to 

make further analysis manageable, the team developed six 

problem area categories related to the IADS domain. These 

problem areas are shown in the orange boxes in the Figure 

below. It turned out that all of the papers could be catego 

rized within one or more of the problem areas. This provid 

ed confidence that a good set of problem areas was chosen 

to represent IADS issues. It is interesting that there is no 

departure problem area. This is because issues associated 

with departures all also fall under one or more of the prob 

lem areas. To clarify one of the problem areas, Manual 

Surface Operations refers to less than fully automated surface operations. 

Also shown in the Figure is the distribution of reports with 

in the identified problem areas. As stated above, some papers are related to one or more problem areas, and these are 

denoted by asterisk by their paper number. The different 

numbering in the report boxes are an artifact of the data 

base search and are not important in this context. It can be 

seen that there is a much larger body of work in the Manual 

Surface Operations area than the others. One shouldn’t take 

this to mean that it is a more important than the others or 

that more benefits are to be gained from resolving surface 

operation issues. Rather it implies that it is an area that has 

been well researched and there is the potential that concepts 

and solutions exist that may be useful to ATD-2.

Since ATD 2 will only be valuable if the results of such a 

demon stration provide significant benefit, the next step 

in this work is to use these reports to estimate system 

wide bene-fits that could be achieved by resolving the 

issues addressed in the papers. As an initial example of 

this, an extrapola-tion of the information in several of the 

NASA papers on the Spot and Runway Departure 

Advisor (SARDA) was used to estimate taxi time fuel 

savings. It was found that for the years 2007 to 2013, 

between $49M and $84M sav-ings is possible at 14 of the 

most congested airports. (POC: Bimal Aponso) 

Distribution of papers and reports by IADS problem area
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TDS-T Shadow Full Scale Simulation of ATD-1 Operations, April 17, 2014

A full scale simulation of air traffic operations utilizing all technologies and procedures under development for ASP’s ATD-1 concept was successfully completed. The

simulation (referred to as CA 5.3) used traffic scenarios derived from data recorded 

from Albuquerque Center (ZAB) and Phoenix terminal area (P50) traffic that includ 

ed peak period arrivals into Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), togeth 

er with recorded ZAB winds. Former ZAB and P50 air traffic managers operated 

ASP’s Traffic Management Advisor with Terminal Metering (TMA TM) to create an 

efficient arrival schedule for the simulated traffic. Former ZAB controllers used sim 

ulated En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) workstations, with ATD-1

technology enhancements, to meter traffic into P50 and to initiate Flight Deck Interval Management (FIM) operations when appropriate. Airline pilots operated desktop 

based flight simulators and used ASP’s prototype FIM system in two thirds of the 

runs. Former P50 controllers used ASP’s controller managed spacing (CMS) tools to 

manage the aircraft along efficient descent paths to PHX arrival runways in both east 

and west flow conditions. Data from CA 5.3 provided system level measures of performance (MOPs) for operations conducted with ATD-1 technologies and

proce-dures, and informs investment decisions by the FAA and NASA. CA 5.3 was a 

joint effort of ATD-1 team members at Ames and Langley. (POCs: Todd

Callantine, Thomas Prevot) 

CA5.3 Simulation Successful Completion of Data Collection, 

April 18, 2014 

The CMS ATD-1 CA 5.3 HITL simulation successfully completed its data collection

activities. The purpose of the CA 5 series of experiments was to assess the performance of the ATD-1 system tools. The CA5.3 experiment fully integrated the

ATD-1 tools to assess the Flight deck Interval Management benefit as compared to

ground tools alone. The Principal Investigators for the CA5.3 simulation included 

Dr. Todd Callantine, San Jose State University, Dr. Thomas Prevot, and Kyle Ellis. 

The results of the CA5.3 experiment will influence future ATD-1 activities, leading

to a demonstration of the ATD-1 capabilities in 2017. (POC: Tom Prevot)

Evaluation Preparations, 

May 22, 2014 

ASP's Tactical Departure Scheduling – Terminal (TDS-T) team 

hosted FAA subject matter experts 

for a pre-experiment meeting at 

the North Texas Research Station 

(NTX) in Fort Worth, Texas. 

ASP's TDS-T research activity 

addresses the challenge of simultaneously satisfying national, regional, and local departure constraints while accommodating traffic from both well-equipped and 

less-equipped airports. Traffic 

managers from Dallas/Fort Worth 

TRACON, and the air traffic control towers at DFW, Dallas Love, 

and Fort Worth Alliance airports 

were briefed by the TDS-T team 

on findings from a nationwide terminal departure operations study, 

terminal departure scheduling algorithm design considerations, and 

TDS-T prototype decision support 

tool software development. The 

meeting participants refined plans 

for the initial TDS-T shadow evaluation which will be held in late 

July in the NTX laboratory. 

(POC: Shawn Engelland) 

The higher precision achieved 

by ATD-1 technologies will reduce

the size of excess spacing buffers, 

resulting in higher terminal throughput and capacity. Furthermore, 

ATD-1 operations will reduce fuel

burn, greenhouse gas emissions, and 

noise. For more information please 

visit: 

www.aviationsystemsdivision.arc. 

nasa.gov/research/tactical/atd1.shtml 
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Delivery of STARS Version of ATD-1 Ground Tool Software,

May 22, 2014 

ASP accepted the Raytheon delivery, and demonstration, of the "SCOUT" version 

of the ATD-1 ground tools software. SCOUT, which stands for STARS

(Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System) CMS (Controller 

Managed Spacing) OpEval Up leveled Tools, was developed using the FAA 

required software devel-opment plans and processes for the STARS operational 

system. This software is targeted for use at ARC for final system validation 

simulations through the Fall and Winter of 2014. The software will then be 

transitioned to the FAA s William J. Hughes Technical Center for the joint NASA 

FAA Operational Integration Assess-ment (OIA, or OpsInt) simulation which will 

use the FAA's automation platforms and utilize current operational air traffic 

controllers. This simulation is a significant milestone toward the completion of the 

ATD-1 Technology Transfer to the FAA. (POC: Kevin Witzberger)

SARDA Third HITL Surface Simulation Completed, May 8, 2014

The SARDA team recently completed the third in a series of six HITL simulation 

experiments investigating automation to improve the ramp tower operations at the 

Charlotte Douglas International Airport (Charlotte, NC). The objective of this simulation was to evaluate the first build of the ramp scheduler, which provides gate 

pushback advisory times to ramp controllers. Complementing the scheduling advisories were new user interfaces for the ramp controllers. Sixteen data runs were collected using three variables: controller positions, the presence of advisories, and arrival scenarios with or without departure traffic. Simulation participants included 

two US Airways ramp controllers, two retired tower controllers from CLT, two non 

CLT ramp controllers, and eight pseudo pilots. System performance and human 

factors questionnaires were also collected for further analysis. The airspace target 

generator (ATG) system was also fitted with a newly developed surface conflict 

detection (CD) capability to issue auto stop commands to aircraft in case conflicts 

were detected, and to leave enough alternative routing options for the pseudo pilots 

to maneuver aircraft around potential obstructions. Initial feedback indicated that the 

pseudo pilots and ramp controllers welcomed this functionality given the heavy traffic congestion in the ramp area. The next HITL simulation will incorporate a more 

advanced scheduler, providing new and enhanced advisories to ramp and tower con 

trollers. (POC: Ty Hoang) 

MESAR Completes Interim 

Test, May 14-15, 2014 

An interim test with Subject Matter 

Experts (SMEs) was conducted for 

the Method to Enhance Scheduled 

Arrival Robustness (MESAR) research project. MESAR is an augmentation to the Traffic Management Advisor with Terminal Metering (TMA-TM) and the CMS 

tools, and is designed to handle 

perturbed schedule-based terminal 

area arrival operations. MESAR 

has augmented displays using slot 

markers, timelines, and speed advisories to graphically display Scheduled Times of Arrival (STAs) and 

Estimated Times of Arrival (ETAs) 

of aircraft, and provides support for 

controllers to sequence, space, and 

merge aircraft and to meet the 

schedule. The interim test investigated MESAR’s ability to handle 

perturbed scheduled operations due 

to missed approaches, pop-up visual flight rules (VFR) flights requiring priority landing, late arrivals 

that cannot be sped up to meet their 

schedule, and a scheduled flight 

declaring a medical emergency and 

overtaking other scheduled flights. 

The Traffic Management Coordinator’s (TMC’s) role was also explored in this test, and TMCs and 

SMEs provided valuable feedback 

on information requirements, displays and tools. Early observations 

suggest that TMCs anticipate impact to schedule disturbances and 

thus react faster than MESAR, 

which must wait to detect schedule 

perturbations. Subsequent interim 

tests will further investigate the 

validity of the MESAR algorithm 

to respond in a meaningful way to 

the expected but difficult to predict 

disturbances that perturbs scheduled operations. (POCs: Jaewoo 

Jung and Savvy Verma) 
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Honeywell CNS NRA Mid term Reviews 

May 30, 2014 

Denise Ponchak and Rafael Apaza attended the Honeywell Communica 

tions, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) NASA Research Agreements 

(NRA) midterm review held at the contractor’s site in Columbia, 

MD. The review entitled “Study of NAS Data Exchange Environment

through 2060” included the previous 6 months effort, and focused on the 

Single Tower simulation for High Altitude Platforms (HAP) and Satellite 

Simulation. It also included the security assessment for the Cellular network and the Satellite Network. Work is progressing on schedule towards 

a successful conclusion of the two year activity at the end of this Septem 

ber. The final review is being proposed to occur the following month. 

(POC: Denise Ponchak). 

June 6, 2014 

Denise Ponchak and Rafael Apaza attended the Xcelar CNS NRA Midterm held at the contractor’s site in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The review 

entitled “Technology Candidates for Air to Air and Air to Ground Data 

Exchange” covered the previous 6 months effort and focused on their Datalink Technology Candidates Comparison and the subsequent Business 

Case Development. It also included a discussion on their comparison and 

ranking methodology. Work is progressing on schedule towards a successful conclusion of the 2 year activity on September 30, 2014. 

Rockwell-Collins 

CNS NRA Mid-term 

Review, June 17, 2014 

Denise Ponchak and Rafael 

Apaza attended the Rockwell 

Collins CNS NRA Midterm 

held at the contractor’s site in 

Cedar Rapids, IA. The review 

entitled “Study of NAS Data 

Exchange Environment 

through 2060” covered the 

previous 6-months effort. The 

focus of the review was on future ATM applications and 

prioritization, communication 

technology candidates that 

meet application needs, use 

case analyses for 3 high priority applications, and cost comparisons of communication 

candidates. The review also 

included tours of their Advanced Technology Center 

Antenna Lab / Chamber, Virtualized Systems Integration 

Lab and their Innovation 

Room showcasing their latest 

communications technology 

research. Work is progressing 

on schedule towards a successful conclusion of the 2-year 

activity on September 30, 

2014. (POC: Denise Ponchak) 
 

 

 

 

 

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Langley Research Center Group Achievement Awards 

Awarded to the Separation Assurance Team (SALSA team) "For outstanding research of Separation Assurance concepts to

enable the Next Generation of the National Airspace System". 

Awardees include: David Wing (Team Lead), Kelly Burke, Ricky Butler, Anthony Busquets, Sherwood Hoadley, Sally 

Johnson, Todd Lauderdale, Timothy Lewis, Elliot Lewis, Mi-chael Palmer, Edward Scearce, Sean Commo, Nipa 

Phojanamongkolkij, and Thomas Prevot. From LITES: Brenda An-drews, John Bunnell, Chad Chapman, James Davis, 

Stephen DePascale, James Henion, David Karr, Joseph King, Steven Kohler, Troy Landers, Melissa McDowell, Douglas 

Mielke, Phillip Nelson, David Roscoe, Ian Sturdy, James Sturdy, Robert Vivona, David West, and David “Chris Wyatt. 

From TEAMS2: John Barry, Thomas Britton, Fred Hibbard, Daniel Hill, Regina Johns and Carolyn Malloy. From 

National Institute of Aerospace: William Cotton and Clay Hubbs. From Safety and Quality Assurance Alliance: Manasi 

Sheth Chandra. From San Jose State University Foundation: Connie Brasil, Chris-topher Cabrall, Albert Globus, Ashley 

Gomez, Jeffery Homloa, Lynne Martin, Joey Mercer, Susan Morey, Vaibhav Kelkar, Richard Jacoby and James Wong. 

Awarded to the TASAR (Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests) Group "For outstanding research and development of

the Traffic Aware Strategic Aircrew Requests (TASAR) flight optimization system". 

Awardees Include: David Wing (Team Lead), Mark Ballin, Kelly Burke, William Cann, Nelson Guerreiro, and Timothy 

Lewis. From Engility Corporation: Stephen DePascale, Jeffrey Henderson, David Karr, Brendan LeFebvre, David Roscoe, 

Robert Vivona, and Sharon Woods. From Advanced Aerospace Solutions/Marinvent Corp: John Maris, Mark Haynes, 

Samual Grainger, Ludovic Laberge, Marie Hêléne Larose, Puthy Soupin, and Tommy Thurber. From Skyservice: Eric Cardin. From Rockwell Collins: Stefan Zoczo. From University of Iowa Operator Performance Lab: Michael Choi, Mathew 

Cover, Joseph Engler, Gregory Fletcher, Adam Gary, Charles Goddard, Richard Miller, Christopher Reuter, Thomas Schnell 

and Michael Yocius. From National Institute of Aerospace: William Cotton 

Individual Medals 

Bryan Barmore -- Exceptional Achievement Medal "For exceptional engineering achievements in advancing flight safety 

and efficiency through the development of advanced flight management procedures and systems". 

Searce Exceptional Service Medal "For exceptional service as Air Traffic Operations Laboratory Manager enabling high 

quality research in air traffic management". and efficiency through the development of advanced flight management 

procedures and systems.” 

ASP’s UTM Research Featured in Aviation Week, June 16, 2014 

NextGen Concepts and Technology Development Project Manager and Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management 

(UTM) principal investigator, Parimal Kopardekar, was interviewed for an article that appeared in the June 16, 2014 issue of 

Aviation Week and Space Technology. The article, entitled “Managing Unmanned,” describes ASP’s new research into developing a system to manage and enable the safe and efficient use of airspace close to the ground for civil UAS operations. 

The goal of this research is to allow initial low altitude operations within five years and scaled up, fully autonomous operations in 10 15 years. UTM is part of the larger NASA plan to bring autonomy to civil aviation. A link to the article can be 

found here:http://awin.aviationweek.com/ArticlesStory.aspx?id=db348391 0ceb 4a36 8dd0 22003f3ddbf7&p=1 

(POC: Parimal Kopardekar) 
Multidisciplinary Collaboration Paper Presentation at 14th AIAA Aviation, June 19, 2014

Dr. Nipa Phojanamongkolkij, presented a technical paper titled “Throughput Benefit Assessment for Tactical Runway 

Configuration Management (TRCM)” by Nipa Phojanamongkolkij, Rosa M. Oseguera-Lohr, Gary W. Lohr, and James 

W. Fenbert, Analytical Mechanics Associates, at the 14th AIAA Aviation in Atlanta, GA. This paper evaluates the

throughput benefits of TRCM in a fast-time simulation environment using a representative sample of today’s traffic

volumes at three airports: Memphis International Airport, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and John F. Kennedy International Airport. The abstract can be viewed at http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2014-2586

(POC: Nipa Phojanamongkolkij)

Also presented at AIAA Aviation: 

Continued on Next Page

AIAA-2014-2019. Characterization of Nationwide TRACON Departure Operations, Matthew S. Kistler; Alan 

Capps; Shawn A. Engelland

AIAA-2014-2020. Design Characteristics of a Terminal 

Departure Scheduler, Alan Capps; Mathew S. Kistler; 

Shawn A. Engelland

AIAA-2014-2021. A Tactical Separation Assurance System 

for Terminal Airspace, Huabin Tang

AIAA-2014-2023. An Evaluation of Retrofit Flight Deck 

Displays for Interval Management, Kurt A. Swieringa; 

Sara R. Wilson; Rick Shay

AIAA-2014-2024. GPU-based Parallelization for Schedule 

Optimization with Uncertainty, Christabelle Bosson; Min 

Xue; Shannon Zelinski

AIAA-2014-2025. Analysis of Airport Ground Delay Program Decisions Using Data Mining Techniques, Deepak 

Kulkarni; Yao Wang; Banavar Sridhar

AIAA-2014-2026. Ground Delay Program Analytics with 

Behavioral Cloning and Inverse Reinforcement Learning, 

Michael J. Bloem; Nicholas Bambos

AIAA-2014-2158. Development of a Bayesian Belief Network Runway Incursion Model, Lawrence L. Green

AIAA-2014-2164. Assessing Relation between Performance 

of Schedule-Based Arrival Operation and Schedule Nonconformance Jaewoo Jung; Jane Thipphavong; Lynne 

Martin

AIAA-2014-2166. Traffic Aware Planner (TAP) Flight Evaluation, John M. Maris; Mark A. Haynes; David J. Wing

AIAA-2014-2289. Three-Dimensional Trajectory Design 

for Reducing Climate Impact of Trans-Atlantic Flights, 

Hok Kwan Ng; Banavar Sridhar; Neil Y. Chen; Jinhua Li

AIAA-2014-2409. Future Evaluation Worlds for NASA 

Aeronautics R&D Portfolio Analysis, Yuri Gawdiak; Jeremiah F. Creedon; Bruce J. Holmes; Stojan Trajkov; Marc 

Narkus-Kramer; Shane D. Bertish; David Ballard

AIAA-2014-2410. JPDO & NASA ARMD Multimodal Analyses, Yuri Gawdiak; Stojan Trajkov; Marc Narkus-Kramer; 

David Ballard; Jeremiah F. Creedon; Robert V. Hemm; 

Virginia L. Stouffer; James Herriot; Bruce J. Holmes

AIAA-2014-2419. System-Level Performance Evaluation of 

ATD-1 Ground-Based Technologies, Todd J. Callantine; 

Michael Kupfer; Lynne Martin; Joey Mercer; Thomas 

Prevot

AIAA-2014-2420. A Frequency Analysis Approach for Categorizing Air Traffic Behavior, Michael C. Drew; Kapil 

Sheth

AIAA-2014-2466. Evaluation of Fast-Time Wake Vortex 

Models using Wake Encounter Flight Test Data, Nashat 

N. Ahmad; Randal VanValkenburg; Roland Bowles; Fanny

M. Limon Duparcmeur

AIAA-2014-2587. Annualizing Throughput Benefits at 

Newark Airport using a New Approach to Converging 

Runway Operations, Paul U. Lee; Husni R. Idris; Nancy 

M. Smith
IAA-2014-2712. Clustering Days with Similar Airport 

Weather Conditions, Shon R. Grabbe; Banavar Sridhar; 

Avijit Mukherjee

AIAA-2014-2713. Predicting Ground Delay Program At An 

Airport Based On Meteorological Conditions, Avijit 

Mukherjee; Shon R. Grabbe; Banavar Sridhar

AIAA-2014-2716. Operational Evaluation of a WeatherAvoidance Rerouting System, Paul F. Borchers; Keenan 

Roach; Louise Morgan-Ruszkowski

AIAA-2014-2859. An Independent and Coordinated Criterion for Kinematic Aircraft Maneuvers, Anthony 

Narkawicz; Cesar Munoz; George E. Hagen

AIAA-2014-2860. An Overview of Current Capabilities 

and Research Activities in the Airspace Operations Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center, Thomas Prevot; 

Nancy M. Smith; Everett Palmer; Todd J. Callantine; Paul 

U. Lee; Joey Mercer; Lynne Martin; Connie Brasil; Christopher Cabrall

AIAA-2014-2861. Autonomous System for Air Traffic Control in Terminal Airspace, Anastasios Nikoleris; Heinz 

Erzberger

AIAA-2014-2863. Large-Scale Data Analysis for Characterization of the Effect of Wind Forecast Errors on ETAs, 

Veera V. Vaddi; Prasenjit Sengupta; Monish D. Tandale; 

John E. Robinson III

AIAA-2014-3016. Identification of Flights for CostEfficient Climate Impact Reduction, Neil Y. Chen; 

Philippe Kirschen; Banavar Sridhar; Hok K. Ng

AIAA-2014-3147. Agent Based Modeling of Air Carrier Behavior for Evaluation of Technology Equipage and Adoption, Brant Horio; Anthony H. DeCicco; Virginia L. 

Stouffer; Shahab Hasan; Rebecca L. Rosenbaum; Jeremy 

C. Smith

AIAA-2014-3148. An Evaluation of a Flight Deck Interval 

Management Algorithm including Delayed Target Trajectories, Kurt A. Swieringa; Matthew C. Underwood; Bryan 

Barmore; Robert Leonard

AIAA-2014-3150. Kinematic Modeling of Separation Compression for Paired Approaches to Closely-Spaced Parallel 

Runways, Michael M. Madden

AIAA-2014-3152. Precision Arrival Scheduling for Tactical 

Reconfiguration, Shannon Zelinski

AIAA-2014-3153. Analytical Assessment of Simultaneous 

Parallel Approach Feasibility from Total System Error, Michael M. Madden

AIAA-2014-3154. Evaluation of Temporal Spacing Errors 

Associated with Interval Management Algorithms, Xiaoli 

Bai; Sai Vaddi; Daniel G. Mulfinger

AIAA-2014-3265. Modeling Delay and Delivery Accuracy 

for Mixed Absolute and Relative Spacing Operations, Ian 

Levitt; Lesley A. Weitz; Bryan Barmore; Michael Castle

AIAA-2014-3269. Strategic Evolution in Aviation Modeling & Requirements Analysis, Yuri Gawdiak; Jeremiah F. 

Creedon; Virginia L. Stouffer; Robert V. Hemm; Mark 

Narkus-Kramer; Stojan Trajkov; David Ballard; Jose 

Tejeda; Shane D. Bertish; Bruce J. Holmes; Jeremy Eckhause