Estimation of Air Traffic Delay Using Three Dimensional Weather Information

This paper describes a weather-impacted traffic index based on three-dimensional weather information and applies it to air traffic delay estimation. The weather-impacted traffic indices were generated using the high-resolution Corridor Integrated Weather System, which provides accurate, automated and high update rate information on both convective weather location and echo tops. In contrast to other methods, the new index discounts an aircraft if it can fly over the weather-impacted area safely, thus incurring no delay. The index was used as an hourly input for various National Airspace System delay estimation models. The models used traffic and weather data from June 2007 and were validated with data from July 2007. Using the index with echo tops improves the delay estimates by two percent.