Method and system for evaluating and implementing air traffic management
tools and approaches for managing and avoiding an air traffic incident
before the incident occurs. The invention provides flight plan routing
and direct routing or wind optimal routing, using great circle navigation
and spherical Earth geometry. The invention provides for aircraft
dynamics effects, such as wind effects at each altitude, altitude
changes, airspeed changes and aircraft turns to provide predictions of
aircraft trajectory (and, optionally, aircraft fuel use). A second system
provides several aviation applications using the first system. These
applications include conflict detection and resolution, miles-in trail or
minutes-in-trail aircraft separation, flight arrival management, flight
re-routing, weather prediction and analysis and interpolation of weather
variables based upon sparse measurements.