Air traffic management in the New York (NY) metropolitan area presents significant challenges inc... more Air traffic management in the New York (NY) metropolitan area presents significant challenges including excess demand, chronic delays, and inefficient routes. At NASA, a new research effort has been initiated to explore Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) solutions to address lingering problems in the NY metroplex. One of the larger problems in NY is departure delays at LaGuardia airport (LGA). Constant traffic demand and physical limitations in the number of taxiways and runways cause LGA to often end up with excessive departure queues that can persist throughout the day.
Ménière disease (MD) is a complex disorder of unknown etiology characterized by the symptom triad... more Ménière disease (MD) is a complex disorder of unknown etiology characterized by the symptom triad of vertigo, sensorineural hearing loss, and tinnitus. Its reported incidence is 1-2 per 1,000 in Caucasians and 0.03-0.37 per 1,000 in Japanese. Doi et al. [Doi et al. (2005); ORL J Otorhinolaryngol Relat Spec 67:289-293] recently reported that two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in KCNE1 and KCNE3 are associated with MD in Japanese subjects. Consistent with this possibility, these two genes encode potassium channels that are expressed in the stria vascularis and endolymphatic sac, respectively, and their role in ion transport suggests that they may be important in inner ear homeostasis. To establish whether a similar association exists in the Caucasian MD population, we sequenced the coding regions and exon-intron boundaries of both genes in 180 Caucasian persons with MD and 180 matched Caucasian controls. Neither of the two reported SNPs was significantly associated with MD when compared to the Caucasian controls (KCNE1, P = 0.55; KCNE3, P = 0.870). Comparison of allele frequencies between the Japanese MD population and our study population revealed no significant difference between groups (KCNE1, P = 0.90; KCNE3, P = 0.862), suggesting that the significant differences reported in the Japanese study arose from their control population. Six additional SNPs in both KCNE1 and KCNE3 were genotyped and none was associated with MD. Population stratification within our MD and Caucasian control population was excluded. Our data show that SNPs in KCNE1 and KCNE3 are not associated with MD in Caucasians.
Current Flight Management Systems (FMS) do a good job of constructing and flying an optimal traje... more Current Flight Management Systems (FMS) do a good job of constructing and flying an optimal trajectory for a single aircraft. Unfortunately, flight crews are often unable to fly these FMS routes during arrivals at busy airports. The Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS) has been designed to aid Center and TRACON controllers in assigning runways, sequencing and vectoring all classes of
A suite of integrated ground side tools is presented that enables trajectory based air traffic co... more A suite of integrated ground side tools is presented that enables trajectory based air traffic control operations on individual sectors and multi sector planning positions. With these tools controllers and traffic planners can assess complex traffic problems and easily create and communicate trajectory changes to other controllers and/or flight crews. A recent study at NASA Ames Research Center on multi sector planning conducted by the FAA, San Jose State University, and NASA yielded very positive results. Participants were able to use the provided automation to resolve conflicts, avoid convective weather cells and redistribute anticipated sector loads in challenging air traffic situations. This paper describes the tools and presents results from the recent simulation.
The feasibility and benefits of a concept for flow-based trajectory management were tested in a m... more The feasibility and benefits of a concept for flow-based trajectory management were tested in a mixed equipage en route environment. Aircraft were designated equipped or unequipped based on the presence or absence of a data communications (Data Comm) capability for receiving auto-loadable clearances and transfer of communication messages from the air navigation service provider. Feasibility issues addressed in this simulation included: (1) whether these operations were feasible for unequipped aircraft, and (2) whether they worked in a mixed equipage context. Two categories of benefits were also explored: (1) system performance improvements (throughput, workload) at different equipage levels, and (2) how well flow-based trajectory management could support a "best-equipped, best-served" policy of air traffic management.
An air/ground simulation of Trajectory-Oriented Operations with Limited Delegation (TOOWiLD) was ... more An air/ground simulation of Trajectory-Oriented Operations with Limited Delegation (TOOWiLD) was conducted at NASA Ames Research Center in September 2006. Four radarcertified air traffic control (ATC) specialists in the Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL), eight glass cockpit pilots in the Flight Deck Display Research Laboratory (FDDRL), and additional "ghost" pilots and controllers operated a heavy eastbound arrival push into Louisville's Standiford airport (SDF) with high density crossing traffic. An arrival management system scheduled aircraft along Continuous Descent Approaches (CDAs) and data linked arrival information to participating aircraft automatically throughout the simulation.
A goal of the CO-ATM concept is to provide a scalable framework to significantly increase NAS cap... more A goal of the CO-ATM concept is to provide a scalable framework to significantly increase NAS capacity and efficiency while maintaining safety. A second goal of this concept is to provide airspace users with increased flexibility in managing their operations. The concept aims at achieving substantial capacity and efficiency benefits through improved information exchange and changes in roles and responsibilities. It builds on lessons learned from Distributed Air/Ground Traffic Management (DAG-TM) research, and addresses identified safety, coordination, automation and mixed equipage concerns. CO-ATM provides a transition path from the current system to the next generation with gradual shifts in roles and responsibilities and incentives for aircraft operators to equip.
A human-in-the-loop simulation was conducted to investigate the operational feasibility, technica... more A human-in-the-loop simulation was conducted to investigate the operational feasibility, technical requirements, and potential improvement in airspace efficiency of adding a Multi-Sector Planner position to air traffic management. A subset of the data from that simulation is analyzed here to determine the impact, if any, of ground-ground data communication (Data Comm) on verbal communication and coordination for multi-sector air traffic management. The results suggest that the use of Data Comm significantly decreases the duration of individual verbal communications.
Although phenotypic variation is commonly observed among populations, the relative contribution o... more Although phenotypic variation is commonly observed among populations, the relative contribution of genetic and environmental conditions to phenotypic expression, including life history traits, is often unresolved. We measured characteristics of several isolated populations of the mangrove snail Cerithidea scalariformis across 2 habitat regimes (exposed marsh and forested mangrove marsh) and found considerable variation in all population characteristics over a 2 yr period. Differences existed among populations in density and individual size, and snails in the forested marsh were significantly larger than those in the exposed marsh. In a reciprocal transplant experiment, we tested the extent to which phenotypic plasticity may contribute to observed population differences in size and several other attributes. Regardless of source, snails maintained in the exposed marsh exhibited faster growth, earlier maturation, greater size, and higher rates of parasitism than snails in the forested marsh. Our results demonstrate that considerable plasticity in demographic traits exists in C. scalariformis across the highly variable range of conditions in coastal wetland habitats. The proximate and ultimate cause of plasticity in these snails, as well as any associated advantages, remain to be tested.
Fiddler crabs (Uca spp.) are common inhabitants of temperate and tropical coastal communities thr... more Fiddler crabs (Uca spp.) are common inhabitants of temperate and tropical coastal communities throughout the world, often occupying specific microenvironments within mangrove and salt marsh habitats. As second intermediate hosts for trematodes, we investigated patterns of host distribution and parasitism for 3 species of sympatric fiddler crabs in mangrove habitats adjacent to the Indian River Lagoon, Florida. Fiddler crab distribution varied among species, with Uca speciosa dominating the low and mid intertidal regions of mangrove banks. This species also exhibited higher prevalence and abundance of Probolocoryphe lanceolata metacercariae compared with Uca rapax, which is relatively more abundant in the high intertidal zone. We conducted a field experiment to test whether U. speciosa was more heavily parasitized by P. lanceolata as a result of its habitat distribution by raising U. speciosa and U. rapax under identical environmental conditions. After exposure to shedding cercariae under the same field conditions, all individuals of U. speciosa became parasitized by P. lanceolata, whereas no U. rapax were parasitized, suggesting that differences in parasitism were driven by host selection.
... To solve these problems the procedure description page will be distributed through Jeppesen o... more ... To solve these problems the procedure description page will be distributed through Jeppesen or through standard company distribution routes with the ... Dr. Everett Palmer, NASA-Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 415-604-6073 [email protected] ...
In this paper we present an airspace capacity research project at NASA's Ames and Langley Researc... more In this paper we present an airspace capacity research project at NASA's Ames and Langley Research Centers within the Terminal Area Productivity program, TAP. We describe an application area that deals with arrival traffic management and control in a 2010 time frame. We investigate utilizing and integrating air traffic control and aircraft automation. We address potential benefits and limitations and initial observations gathered from several controllers and pilots in the loop simulations.
Research projects on enabling trajectory-based 4D operations have had limited success in the past... more Research projects on enabling trajectory-based 4D operations have had limited success in the past causing tendencies to abandon the idea of "absolute" time-based operations in favor of "relative" aircraftto-aircraft based operations. Over the past five years researchers at NASA Ames Research Center have matured a concept of trajectory-oriented time-based arrival management in a number of human-in-theloop simulation studies. Data gathered in recent experiments reflect the potential benefits envisioned for the concept. Inter-arrival time variability has been significantly reduced. More aircraft were able to conduct energy-efficient descents during a reduced flight time. Controller workload at the busiest sector was reduced; with some workload shifted to less busy sectors. Objective and subjective data were analyzed to provide recommendations for ground-based automation that enables trajectory-oriented operations with its associated benefits. These operations can facilitate and be complemented with relative operations to circumvent the problems of 4D operations and increase the potential benefits even further. This paper presents data excerpts, recommendations and a concept for combining airborne self-spacing and merging functions with trajectory-oriented time-based arrival operations.
2015 IEEE/AIAA 34th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), 2015
Airports with shared runway operations between arrivals and departures can experience severe depa... more Airports with shared runway operations between arrivals and departures can experience severe departure gridlock and delays during a heavy arrival push due to insufficient gaps in the arrival stream for aircraft to depart. The problem is accentuated in situations when a large gap in the arrival spacing has to be created at the last minute due to wake vortex separation requirements. At LaGuardia airport, wake vortex separation problems arise when a heavy jet, such as a B757, departing on Runway 31 needs additional spacing between arrivals on Runway 22.
Air traffic management in the New York (NY) metropolitan area presents significant challenges inc... more Air traffic management in the New York (NY) metropolitan area presents significant challenges including excess demand, chronic delays, and inefficient routes. At NASA, a new research effort has been initiated to explore Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) solutions to address lingering problems in the NY metroplex. One of the larger problems in NY is departure delays at LaGuardia airport (LGA). Constant traffic demand and physical limitations in the number of taxiways and runways cause LGA to often end up with excessive departure queues that can persist throughout the day.
Ménière disease (MD) is a complex disorder of unknown etiology characterized by the symptom triad... more Ménière disease (MD) is a complex disorder of unknown etiology characterized by the symptom triad of vertigo, sensorineural hearing loss, and tinnitus. Its reported incidence is 1-2 per 1,000 in Caucasians and 0.03-0.37 per 1,000 in Japanese. Doi et al. [Doi et al. (2005); ORL J Otorhinolaryngol Relat Spec 67:289-293] recently reported that two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in KCNE1 and KCNE3 are associated with MD in Japanese subjects. Consistent with this possibility, these two genes encode potassium channels that are expressed in the stria vascularis and endolymphatic sac, respectively, and their role in ion transport suggests that they may be important in inner ear homeostasis. To establish whether a similar association exists in the Caucasian MD population, we sequenced the coding regions and exon-intron boundaries of both genes in 180 Caucasian persons with MD and 180 matched Caucasian controls. Neither of the two reported SNPs was significantly associated with MD when compared to the Caucasian controls (KCNE1, P = 0.55; KCNE3, P = 0.870). Comparison of allele frequencies between the Japanese MD population and our study population revealed no significant difference between groups (KCNE1, P = 0.90; KCNE3, P = 0.862), suggesting that the significant differences reported in the Japanese study arose from their control population. Six additional SNPs in both KCNE1 and KCNE3 were genotyped and none was associated with MD. Population stratification within our MD and Caucasian control population was excluded. Our data show that SNPs in KCNE1 and KCNE3 are not associated with MD in Caucasians.
Current Flight Management Systems (FMS) do a good job of constructing and flying an optimal traje... more Current Flight Management Systems (FMS) do a good job of constructing and flying an optimal trajectory for a single aircraft. Unfortunately, flight crews are often unable to fly these FMS routes during arrivals at busy airports. The Center TRACON Automation System (CTAS) has been designed to aid Center and TRACON controllers in assigning runways, sequencing and vectoring all classes of
A suite of integrated ground side tools is presented that enables trajectory based air traffic co... more A suite of integrated ground side tools is presented that enables trajectory based air traffic control operations on individual sectors and multi sector planning positions. With these tools controllers and traffic planners can assess complex traffic problems and easily create and communicate trajectory changes to other controllers and/or flight crews. A recent study at NASA Ames Research Center on multi sector planning conducted by the FAA, San Jose State University, and NASA yielded very positive results. Participants were able to use the provided automation to resolve conflicts, avoid convective weather cells and redistribute anticipated sector loads in challenging air traffic situations. This paper describes the tools and presents results from the recent simulation.
The feasibility and benefits of a concept for flow-based trajectory management were tested in a m... more The feasibility and benefits of a concept for flow-based trajectory management were tested in a mixed equipage en route environment. Aircraft were designated equipped or unequipped based on the presence or absence of a data communications (Data Comm) capability for receiving auto-loadable clearances and transfer of communication messages from the air navigation service provider. Feasibility issues addressed in this simulation included: (1) whether these operations were feasible for unequipped aircraft, and (2) whether they worked in a mixed equipage context. Two categories of benefits were also explored: (1) system performance improvements (throughput, workload) at different equipage levels, and (2) how well flow-based trajectory management could support a "best-equipped, best-served" policy of air traffic management.
An air/ground simulation of Trajectory-Oriented Operations with Limited Delegation (TOOWiLD) was ... more An air/ground simulation of Trajectory-Oriented Operations with Limited Delegation (TOOWiLD) was conducted at NASA Ames Research Center in September 2006. Four radarcertified air traffic control (ATC) specialists in the Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL), eight glass cockpit pilots in the Flight Deck Display Research Laboratory (FDDRL), and additional "ghost" pilots and controllers operated a heavy eastbound arrival push into Louisville's Standiford airport (SDF) with high density crossing traffic. An arrival management system scheduled aircraft along Continuous Descent Approaches (CDAs) and data linked arrival information to participating aircraft automatically throughout the simulation.
A goal of the CO-ATM concept is to provide a scalable framework to significantly increase NAS cap... more A goal of the CO-ATM concept is to provide a scalable framework to significantly increase NAS capacity and efficiency while maintaining safety. A second goal of this concept is to provide airspace users with increased flexibility in managing their operations. The concept aims at achieving substantial capacity and efficiency benefits through improved information exchange and changes in roles and responsibilities. It builds on lessons learned from Distributed Air/Ground Traffic Management (DAG-TM) research, and addresses identified safety, coordination, automation and mixed equipage concerns. CO-ATM provides a transition path from the current system to the next generation with gradual shifts in roles and responsibilities and incentives for aircraft operators to equip.
A human-in-the-loop simulation was conducted to investigate the operational feasibility, technica... more A human-in-the-loop simulation was conducted to investigate the operational feasibility, technical requirements, and potential improvement in airspace efficiency of adding a Multi-Sector Planner position to air traffic management. A subset of the data from that simulation is analyzed here to determine the impact, if any, of ground-ground data communication (Data Comm) on verbal communication and coordination for multi-sector air traffic management. The results suggest that the use of Data Comm significantly decreases the duration of individual verbal communications.
Although phenotypic variation is commonly observed among populations, the relative contribution o... more Although phenotypic variation is commonly observed among populations, the relative contribution of genetic and environmental conditions to phenotypic expression, including life history traits, is often unresolved. We measured characteristics of several isolated populations of the mangrove snail Cerithidea scalariformis across 2 habitat regimes (exposed marsh and forested mangrove marsh) and found considerable variation in all population characteristics over a 2 yr period. Differences existed among populations in density and individual size, and snails in the forested marsh were significantly larger than those in the exposed marsh. In a reciprocal transplant experiment, we tested the extent to which phenotypic plasticity may contribute to observed population differences in size and several other attributes. Regardless of source, snails maintained in the exposed marsh exhibited faster growth, earlier maturation, greater size, and higher rates of parasitism than snails in the forested marsh. Our results demonstrate that considerable plasticity in demographic traits exists in C. scalariformis across the highly variable range of conditions in coastal wetland habitats. The proximate and ultimate cause of plasticity in these snails, as well as any associated advantages, remain to be tested.
Fiddler crabs (Uca spp.) are common inhabitants of temperate and tropical coastal communities thr... more Fiddler crabs (Uca spp.) are common inhabitants of temperate and tropical coastal communities throughout the world, often occupying specific microenvironments within mangrove and salt marsh habitats. As second intermediate hosts for trematodes, we investigated patterns of host distribution and parasitism for 3 species of sympatric fiddler crabs in mangrove habitats adjacent to the Indian River Lagoon, Florida. Fiddler crab distribution varied among species, with Uca speciosa dominating the low and mid intertidal regions of mangrove banks. This species also exhibited higher prevalence and abundance of Probolocoryphe lanceolata metacercariae compared with Uca rapax, which is relatively more abundant in the high intertidal zone. We conducted a field experiment to test whether U. speciosa was more heavily parasitized by P. lanceolata as a result of its habitat distribution by raising U. speciosa and U. rapax under identical environmental conditions. After exposure to shedding cercariae under the same field conditions, all individuals of U. speciosa became parasitized by P. lanceolata, whereas no U. rapax were parasitized, suggesting that differences in parasitism were driven by host selection.
... To solve these problems the procedure description page will be distributed through Jeppesen o... more ... To solve these problems the procedure description page will be distributed through Jeppesen or through standard company distribution routes with the ... Dr. Everett Palmer, NASA-Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000 415-604-6073 [email protected] ...
In this paper we present an airspace capacity research project at NASA's Ames and Langley Researc... more In this paper we present an airspace capacity research project at NASA's Ames and Langley Research Centers within the Terminal Area Productivity program, TAP. We describe an application area that deals with arrival traffic management and control in a 2010 time frame. We investigate utilizing and integrating air traffic control and aircraft automation. We address potential benefits and limitations and initial observations gathered from several controllers and pilots in the loop simulations.
Research projects on enabling trajectory-based 4D operations have had limited success in the past... more Research projects on enabling trajectory-based 4D operations have had limited success in the past causing tendencies to abandon the idea of "absolute" time-based operations in favor of "relative" aircraftto-aircraft based operations. Over the past five years researchers at NASA Ames Research Center have matured a concept of trajectory-oriented time-based arrival management in a number of human-in-theloop simulation studies. Data gathered in recent experiments reflect the potential benefits envisioned for the concept. Inter-arrival time variability has been significantly reduced. More aircraft were able to conduct energy-efficient descents during a reduced flight time. Controller workload at the busiest sector was reduced; with some workload shifted to less busy sectors. Objective and subjective data were analyzed to provide recommendations for ground-based automation that enables trajectory-oriented operations with its associated benefits. These operations can facilitate and be complemented with relative operations to circumvent the problems of 4D operations and increase the potential benefits even further. This paper presents data excerpts, recommendations and a concept for combining airborne self-spacing and merging functions with trajectory-oriented time-based arrival operations.
2015 IEEE/AIAA 34th Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC), 2015
Airports with shared runway operations between arrivals and departures can experience severe depa... more Airports with shared runway operations between arrivals and departures can experience severe departure gridlock and delays during a heavy arrival push due to insufficient gaps in the arrival stream for aircraft to depart. The problem is accentuated in situations when a large gap in the arrival spacing has to be created at the last minute due to wake vortex separation requirements. At LaGuardia airport, wake vortex separation problems arise when a heavy jet, such as a B757, departing on Runway 31 needs additional spacing between arrivals on Runway 22.
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Papers by Nancy Smith