Large-scale Modeling and Optimization of En Route Air Traffic Flow by

Large-scale Modeling and Optimization of En Route Air Traffic Flow by Dengfeng Sun Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering-Civil and Environmental Engineering University of California at Berkeley Professor Alexandre M. Bayen, Chair The research presented in this dissertation is motivated by the need for balancing the increasing demand and limited capacity of the National Airspace System (NAS), and more generally for large scale networked dynamical systems. A new paradigm for building an Eulerian-Lagrangian Cell Transmission Model for air traffic flow is developed. It is based on a network flow model constructed from historical air traffic data, and is applied to the entire continental NAS in the United States. This model is called Large-capacity Cell Transmission Model, CTM(L), in reference to the Cell Transmission Model in highway traffic. The CTM(L) captures fundamental characteristics, for example aircraft counts in sectors and travel times, of traffic flows in the Air Traffic Control (ATC) system. The predictive capabilities of the model are successfully validated against the recorded Enhanced Traffic Management System (ETMS) and Aircraft Situation Display to Industry (ASDI) data by showing an accurate match between predicted sector counts (based on filed flight plans) and measured sector counts.