Press Release

Sensis to Design NextGen Airspace Procedures for High Density Airport Terminal Areas

By SpaceRef Editor
February 7, 2011
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NASA Project Sets Framework for Improved Capacity and Efficiency

Sensis Corporation was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) Super Density Operations Airspace Design (SDOAD) project. Sensis will develop airspace definitions, including procedures and routes, which will enable NASA to more effectively and accurately research NextGen concepts to increase capacity at high volume, complex airports and surrounding airspaces.

As part of its NextGen initiative, NASA is examining a number of new operational concepts aimed at addressing current and future capacity challenges at major U.S. airports. In order to best test and evaluate these concepts, airspace definitions, including operational procedures and routes, must be developed. Sensis will be modeling the arrival and departure traffic routes for six major Southern California metroplex airports including Los Angeles International, Burbank, Ontario, Long Beach, Santa Ana, and San Diego. The project will entail characterization of traffic flow route and altitude ranges; analysis, modeling and design of continuous descent and standard arrival procedures as well as future departure procedures; and trajectory based evaluation of the modeled procedures. NASA will use the definitions to accurately test new concepts, including automated arrival concepts.

“Current U.S. airport capacity is far less than the forecasted demand. One of the goals of NextGen is to develop new procedures that will unlock capacity by increasing operational efficiencies,” said Ken Kaminski, vice president and general manager, Sensis Air Traffic Systems. “This project looks at a complex high traffic metroplex to identify the individual operational characteristics that need to be taken into account to accurately test NextGen capacity improvement concepts before the concepts are further matured.”

Sensis is a leader in modeling, simulation and analysis of the potential impact of future airspace and airport improvements. Through its fast-time and real-time capabilities, Sensis can generate current and future air traffic demand scenarios, provide system-wide or regional simulations to evaluate current and future air traffic management concepts, and analyze and visualize simulation results.

ABOUT SENSIS CORPORATION

Sensis Corporation provides sensors, information technology, and simulation and modeling to the world’s air navigation service providers, civil aviation authorities, airports, airlines and militaries. Sensis Corporation solutions are deployed around the world. For more information, visit www.sensis.com.

SpaceRef staff editor.