Summary
Accurate wind information is of fundamental importance to some of the critical future air traffic concepts under the FAA's Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) initiative. Concepts involving time elements, such as Four-Dimensional Trajectory Based Operations (4D-TBO) and Interval Management (IM), are especially sensitive to wind information accuracy. There is a growing need to establish appropriate concepts of operation and target performance requirements accounting for wind information accuracy for these types of procedure, and meeting these needs is the purpose of this project. In the first phase of this work, a Wind Information Analysis Framework was developed to help explore the relationship of wind information to NextGen application performance. A refined version of the framework has been developed for the Phase 2 work that highlights the role stakeholders play in defining Air Traffic Control (ATC) scenarios, distinguishes wind scenarios into benign, moderate, severe, and extreme categories, and more clearly identifies what and how wind requirements recommendations are developed from the performance assessment trade-spaces. This report documents how this refined analysis framework has been used in Phase 2 of the work in terms of: -Refined wind information metrics and wind scenario selection process applicable to a broader range of NextGen applications, with particular focus on 4D-TBO and IM. -Expanded and refined studies of 4D-TBO applications with current Flight Management Systems (FMS) (with MITRE collaboration) to identify more accurate trade-spaces using operational FMS capabilities with higher-fidelity aircraft models. -Expansion of the 4D-TBO study using incremental enhancements possible in future FMSs (with Honeywell collaboration), specifically in the area of wind blending algorithms to quantify performance improvement potential from near-term avionics refinements. -Demonstrating the adaptability of the Wind Information Analysis Framework by using it to identify initial wind information needs for IM applications.