NAS-Wide Environmental Modeling of Alternative Airspace Concepts

NASA, through several technology and concept development projects, is developing simulation/evaluation tools to assess the capacity and efficiency of alternative airspace/operational concepts. Missing from the current tool suite, however, is the ability to evaluate concepts from the perspective of environmental impact ? a key missing piece required to move a promising concept from simulation to implementation. To fill this gap, Metron Aviation develops a NAS-wide environmental impact modeling (NASEIM) service and fully integrates access to this service within the Advanced Concept Evaluation System (ACES), a fast-time simulator being developed as a national resource for evaluating NAS concepts. NASEIM not only spares researchers from the computational burden and data requirements associated with environmental modeling, but provides innovative tools for interpreting modeling results. The design of NASEIM allows fast-time noise computation ? consistent with the needs of the simulation it is supporting. In addition to noise modeling, NASEIM integrates air quality impact assessment in the form of emissions inventories, providing a more complete environmental impact picture. Using NASEIM, researchers can, early in the development cycle, identify concept elements that are significant contributors to specific impacts. Further, NASEIM allows comparison across multiple concepts. Phase II concludes with an integrated demonstration of NASEIM with ACES.