Next generation data-driven reference European models and methods towards silent and green aircraft operations around airports

Project Information

NEEDED

Grant agreement ID: 101095754

DOI

10.3030/101095754

EC signature date 28 November 2022

Start date 1 January 2023

End date 31 December 2026

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 4 416 344,75

EU contribution

€ 3 936 271,75

Coordinated by

AIT AUSTRIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GMBH
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NEEDED (Next generation data-driven reference European models and methods towards silent and green aircraft operations around airports)

Reporting period: 2024-07-01 to 2025-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

NEEDED responds to the second and third bullets of the “expected outcome” of the HORIZON-CL5-2022-D5-01-12 topic, delivering the next generation data-driven reference European models and methods to estimate present and future aircraft emissions (pollutants and noise), achieving TRL 4 at the end of the project. To do so, NEEDED is advancing the state of the art by:
• improving the accuracy of the reconstruction of aircraft operations by using real-world ADS-B data (project Area #1),
• advancing emission inventories for current and future aircraft technologies, while delivering more accurate pollution dispersion models (project Area #2),
• improving the ECAC Doc 29 noise model accuracy in the Lden 45-55dB(A) region and extending its applicability towards future aircraft technologies (project Area #3),
• performing more accurate estimation of the number of people affected by local air transport operations by using dynamic population maps (project Area #4).
These activities are complemented by (i) local air quality (LAQ) and experimental noise measurements performed at Rotterdam The Hague Airport, (ii) validation of the NEEDED toolchain (see Figure 1) in a 30-week pilot study involving three airports, and (iii) delivery of a methodology to optimise the flight patterns for minimum detrimental impact on the population in present and future scenarios.
The NEEDED toolchain will enable the prediction of noise emissions from single aircraft takeoff and landing procedures using publicly available ADS-B data. This capability allows for noise emission computations at almost any airport based on actual traffic, without needing data from airports or airlines. This opens several opportunities: researchers and associations can gain better insights into major noise events, regulators can establish more effective regulations, and we can predict noise reduction achievable by implementing specific technologies or renewing the aircraft fleet.
Furthermore, for Local Air Quality (LAQ), we aim to significantly improve the predictions of current state-of-the-art codes. This enhancement will provide researchers, associations, and regulators with a better tool to estimate the effects of real-world traffic on LAQ, helping to identify promising improvements.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Obj. #1:
NEEDED has defined and developed a data collection and pre-processing framework to deliver datasets of real-world aircraft operations from ADS-B data. This is implemented in Traffic library. NEEDED has developed also a methodology to estimate missing aircraft performance parameters (e.g. thrust, weight) for near-airport flight operations on the basis of the datasets provided by Traffic. The validation of the models is running and will be provided in RP3.
Obj. #2:
NEEDED improved EUROCONTROL Open-ALAQS, allowing the use of the real-world aircraft ground movements and airborne trajectories provided by WP2 and increasing its time resolution in emission calculation. Concerning the highly resolved atmospheric dispersion, the development of the module to interface with ONERA's atmospheric model Meso-NH with Open-ALAQS is completed, as the off-line coupling between Meso-NH and GEOS-CHEM.
Obj. #3:
NEEDED delivered an advanced version of a methodology to compare the predictions of the Doc.29. model with experimental measurements and it has been applied to a first set of measurements performed near Rotterdam and Schiphol airport.
Other achievements:
NEEDED has performed the Noise and LAQ measurements around RTHA and the preliminary results analysis for the emission at the Rotterdam airport are delivered. The ground-based observation at Larnaca airport has been performed.
NEEDED has developed a first version of the methodology to create dynamic population maps. The core activities will proceed in RP3.
NEEDED has selected Rotterdam, Schiphol, and Dublin as target airports. A representative period has been selected, and the WP2 database is on finalization. WP3 proceeded with the compilation of all emission sources at the Rotterdam airport, to collect all the necessary information about the airport and non-airport (e.g. roadway traffic) sources that can and will be modelled within NEEDED, including activity data, source characteristics and emission indices for each source. The comparison will be performed in RP3.
EUROCONTROL is actively and regularly presenting NEEDED activities in international working groups and supervising the technical developments, providing feedback and support in the data collection. EUROCONTROL supported NEEDED in obtaining the BADA4 license and to add AIRBUS in the AB.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project aims to achieve several advancements beyond the current state of the art. While significant progress has been made during the first two reporting periods, these achievements still require further validation and proof. This will be undertaken in the third reporting periods.
However, the following accomplishments are already measurable: (i) we were able to reach >90% of the reconstruction of the actual flight events in the selected airports, (ii) for more than 65% of the flight events, it was possible to include also the taxi phases.