VEFP: visual evaluation of flight procedure in airport terminal

Abstract

The optimization of terminal airspace can provide more airport capacity to meet the growing aviation demand. Improving flight procedures is an important prerequisite for optimizing airspace. The existing air-route network visualization cannot fully meet the assessment needs of the terminal flight procedure. In this research, we introduce an analysis tool, VEFP, that provides multiple visualizations based on unlabeled flight trajectory data. The system can help domain experts to evaluate the terminal flight procedure from multiple perspectives, respectively. First, we provide a time series-based statistical information view to help determine the usage status of the flight procedure per unit time. Second, we evaluated the controller’s use of space for flight procedures based on the location information in the data. Third, combined with the visualization method after data processing, the visual complexity is reduced and necessary details are displayed. Then, the users can directly observe the actual flight procedure. We evaluate flight procedures in actual use through cases and experiments and then discuss with users about the observations provided by the system. These results confirm that our system can help domain experts evaluate flight procedures.