Statistical Analysis of Wake Vortex Data towards finding a criterion for safe aircraft departure separation

Abstract

A long term measurement campaign of wake vortices from departing aircraft has been conducted at major European airports between January and June 2007. Meteorological as well as aircraft trajectory data have been collected in parallel. Data from the various sensors have been fused and correlated in order to characterize the vortices in an operational and meteorological context. The objective of this campaign is to finally elaborate a criterion that safely allows reducing departure separations under certain weather conditions. This paper describes some first results that were obtained analyzing the wake vortex data and the weather data accordingly. Modern data mining techniques have been applied by which characteristic wake vortex types could be discovered allowing to generalize findings within such wake vortex clusters. Comparisons between the today's baseline scenario and the criterion-based scenario reveal the feasibility of reduced departure separations while preserving the present safety level.