excuse my bragging ...

[michal 44]

http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archives/avflash/702-full.htmlSoftware originally designed for computer simulations has become an important tool for air traffic control centers to predict and manage the flow of aircraft traffic. Therefore NASA has declared its Future Air traffic management Concepts Evaluation Tool (FACET) the Software of the Year. The software crunches air traffic and weather data across the country and can predict the trajectories of aircraft, including climb, cruise and descent phases. It enables a single computer to track 15,000 flights and tell controllers when and how each is going to get to its destination. Its core technology is now use by 100 ATC centers and has been commercially licensed to Flight Explorer. "FACET started out as a simulation tool for NASA research and has evolved into an operations planning tool for the FAA and airlines," said NASA's Banavar Sridhar, FACET team lead at the Ames Research Center at Moffet Field, Calif. FACET is among the programs under development at Ames to help modernize the National Airspace System. The Software of the Year award is chosen from nominees from all of NASA's research centers and general usability (including patentability and licensing potential) is a key factor in picking the winner.I happen to be a member of the FACET development team.Michael J.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

I don't have much time available for posting in the forums in the past couple of months, but did want to take time out and say congrats on the team's recognition. Such tools not only help aviation, they also help save lives by helping ATC manage the challenges they deal with. That's not only worth bragging about, it's something you should be proud of.Signing off'-John

[lcseale53 0]

Nice work Michael...it ain't bragging when you can back it up!Congratulations!Regards,Leon

[michal 44]

Thanks guys.Michael J.

[JerryG 1]

Very nice Michael. We've seen your postings here throughout the yearsand you certainly have an expert level understanding about AC,aviation, etc.It's nice to get a glimpse of the behind-the-simulator person youare and the contributions you make to the FAA and airlines.Thank you sir!JerryG

[michal 44]

I greatly appreciate this Jerry. Maybe one day I will be able to show you how FACET runs - it runs very well on my laptop (under Linux).At the moment I am doing some research with another person from NASA - we are using FACET as a research tool. We are simulating 3 x traffic (predicted level of air traffic in 2025) and trying to identify aircraft 'clusters' and how to track them. It is all very mathematical. We measure probability of occurance of such clusters, their densities, places where they show up, dwell time, etc.Michael J.

[JerryG 1]

Whoa! That's some pretty intense mathematical simulation you'reaccomplishing.Out of curiosity (and if it discloses too much FAA sensitive data -just decline to comment), does the FACET predictions provide theFAA with future ATC planning/personnel/facility locations?I'm not that versed in the whole USA ATC details, but dependingupon what FACET can predict as far as traffic clustering, couldit provide the FAA with more efficient ATC control?Thanks again,JerryG

[michal 44]

FACET has broad applications but it also has its limits. For example I believe Continental and NWA are running FACET in their dispatch centers to do their own stuff (we license it to them and they get it for FREE!). We at NASA-Moffett Field are busy usually putting new features into it or use it for basic ATC research. FACET is an ideal tool to predict what would happen if you ask airplanes to fly this way instead of something else... Yes, FAA could for example see what would be consequences of redisigning the airspace (changing sector/center) boundaries. However FACET can't get to the level of individual controller, we can only say that this sector will be busier during some periods. So I am not sure if FAA can derive any facility-personnel information out of it. But I don't think this is what they want to do with it - they use primarily to test future methods of aircraft "flow control".By the way, there are two other competing software packages that try to model NAS - one is called ACES (Advanced Concept Evaluation System) - also developed at NASA Ames. This one is a monstrosity program that needs some super computers to run. It's scope and purpose is different than FACET's.Michael J.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/for...argo_hauler.gifhttp://sales.hifisim.com/pub-download/asv6-banner-beta.jpg