Defining Dynamic Route Structure for Airspace Configuration

This paper describes a method for defining route structure from flight tracks. Dynamically gen-erated route structures could be useful in guid-ing dynamic airspace configuration and helping controllers retain situational awareness under dy-namically changing traffic conditions. Individual merge and diverge intersections between pairs of flights are identified, clustered, and grouped into nodes of a route structure network. Links are placed between nodes to represent major traffic flows. A parametric analysis determined the al-gorithm input parameters producing route struc-tures of current day flight plans that are closest to todays airway structure. These parameters are then used to define and analyze the dynamic route structure over the course of a day for current day flight paths. Route structures are also compared between current day flight paths and more user preferred paths such as great circle and weather avoidance routing. Nomenclature A = airway structure B = boundary C = cluster D = diverge I = intersection L = link M = merge N = node n = number P = path or sequence of points p = point position R = route structure r = lateral radial distance S = airway segment w = weight z = vertical distance δ = structure deviation η = boundary proximity percentage λ = structure representation ρ = intersection representation σ = standard deviation τ = flight track data time range ω = filtering threshold