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The purpose of the Traffic Management Advisor Multi-Center (TMA-MC) project is to assist in planning and managing streams of arrival traffic into selected Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities that receive traffic from two or more en route centers. The TMA-MC is an extension of the current Traffic Management Advisor Single-Center (TMA-SC) tool into a multi-facility environment. TMA-SC is one of the capabilities introduced as part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS) that is being implemented as part of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Free Flight Phase 1 program. The focus of TMA-MC research will be on the northeast corridor, particularly the improvement of arrival flows into Philadelphia International Airport.

The TMA-MC research will investigate the modifications needed to enhance the planning capabilities of TMA-SC for traffic management coordinators (TMCs) in multiple facilities to improve the metering of aircraft to a congested resource (airport or airspace). The goal is to develop an effective tool for addressing traffic management challenges not only at Philadelphia International Airport, but throughout the entire national airspace system.

CAASD's Role

The MITRE Corporation's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) brings significant general traffic flow management operational expertise and more than 25 years operational and technical experience with time-based metering. Starting with the initial en route metering, CAASD has played a significant role in the research, development and implementation of each time-based metering decision support tool. CAASD is working collaboratively with NASA Ames Research Center (NASA ARC), the developer of the Traffic Management Advisor tool, on the research to expand the single-center capability into a multi-center one.

NASA ARC is the research leader on TMA-MC and is researching the software and hardware architectural, algorithmic, and human factor requirements for extending TMA-SC into this complex multi-facility environment. NASA ARC is using the Computer Sciences Corporation to develop the TMA-MC hardware and software using TMA-SC hardware and software functionality as the baseline. CAASD's role is identifying the operational requirements for implementing time-based metering in a multi-facility environment that has never seriously attempted to use time-based metering in place of miles-in-trail (MIT) restrictions. CAASD also is developing an initial "concept of use" for TMA-MC and will revise it based on feedback from the traffic management coordinator participants in human-in-the-loop simulations at NASA ARC, on collaboration exercises using the CAASD developed internet capability, and on shadow-mode use in the field.

Background

TMA is the third generation of time-based metering decision support tools. In the mid-1970s, the Denver and Fort Worth Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) jointly developed the initial time-based metering capability know as en route metering (ERM). In the early 1980s, a version called ERM1A was implemented nationally but was not widely used. In the late 1980s, the FAA implemented the Arrival Sequencing Program (ASP), an evolutionary enhancement to ERM1A. ASP was more successful than ERM1A because it was used in arrival sectors for time-based metering at a few more ARTCCs.

In 1990, as part of the FAA's Terminal Air Traffic Control Automation program, the FAA collaborated with NASA to research the CTAS technology as the next step in the time-based metering evolution. When the TMA component of CTAS was successfully demonstrated as an effective replacement for ASP at the Denver and Fort Worth ARTCCs, the FAA included TMA-SC in its new Free Flight Phase 1 program for implementation by 2002. As its name implies, TMA-SC is effective for metering when the metered airport is receiving traffic from a single ARTCC. The research into how to extend TMA-SC into a multi-facility environment is required because many major airports, especially in the northeast corridor, must work with multiple centers.

The RTCA 2003-2005 Capabilities Working Group identified TMA-MC as one of the areas of research which is expected to come to fruition in the 2003-2005 timeframe. TMA-MC has been designated as a priority research component of the Free Flight Phase 2 program being run by the Free Flight Program Office.

Implementing the Traffic Management Advisor Multi-Center

Philadelphia International Airport traffic is fed directly by two arrival centers, the New York and Washington, DC, Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs), over the BUNTS, MAZIE and TERRI, VCN meter fixes, respectively. The adjacent centers, the Boston and Cleveland ARTCCs, also have a significant impact on Philadelphia traffic before it gets to the New York and Washington centers. Because of the congested airspace (and limited delay controllability) in the New York and Washington ARTCCs, TMA metering must be initiated beyond the arrival and transition sectors. This means that the Cleveland and Boston ARTCCs (and possibly others) must be involved in the metering process. Figures 1 and 2 illustrate the geography of the multi-center metering environment for Philadelphia.

Figures 3 and 4 are examples of the TMA load graph and time line information that will be available (in real-time) to the traffic management coordinators (TMCs) in all the participating facilities. The expectation is for the TMCs in these facilities to use this information to initially collaborate on implementing MIT restrictions and then to transition to time-based metering to regulate the traffic during high arrival demand periods at Philadelphia International Airport.

The goal is for the initial TMA-MC prototype to be available for evaluation at the facilities during the summer of 2002. In mid-2003, the second phase of TMA-MC will be used for evaluating time-based metering. After the time-based metering evaluations, the FAA will make a decision on daily use of the TMA-MC prototype at Philadelphia International Airport.