Dynamic Route Optimization Based on Adverse Weather Data

As air traffic remains a growth market despite the economic recession in summer 2008 and current forecasts still predict an increase in the air traffic worldwide, it becomes necessary to change current traffic procedures and to integrate innovative ATM technologies in order to meet future requirements. The air transportation system is a highly complex system with innumerable influencing factors. One of the main goals is to preserve or even improve the current safety level, however environmental and economic aspects become more and more important. This paper describes an aircraft-based trajectory optimization system that generates efficient flight paths around convective weather. These flight paths are based on regularly updated weather radar data from which a nowcast is established. Nowadays, the flight crew is provided with weather forecasts for the planned route and its surroundings before the flight. Within this research concept it is assumed that in the near future regular updates are transmitted via data link to the aircraft. Through an early optimization of the flight path, an ecological efficient route planning can be achieved which allows a minimization of detours and a reduction of fuel burn at the same time. Keywords-adverse weather conditions; radar data; nowcast; trajectory optimization