Airspace Geometry and 4D
Flight Proximity Detection for Simulation of the National Airspace System
May 2006
Paul T. R. Wang, The MITRE Corporation
Richard E. Snow, The MITRE Corporation
ABSTRACT
The authors present uncomplicated and well established equations that can be used in simulation or real-world ap-plications to determine key crossing points and aircraft proximity when the trajectory and speed of aircraft pairs are known. These equations, in close form, were developed for computing the minimum distance between two aircraft within the four-dimensional (4D) space-time domain. The 4D flight proximity information can be used in simulation to evaluate large numbers of scheduled routes over a lim-ited airspace for controller workload assessment. Also, it can be used to detect potential separation violations and impacts of traffic flow management (TFM) strategies. An example of computing the distance between two flights in 4D is presented. Sample aircraft proximity landscape in 4D space-time simulation with MATLAB code is also provided.

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