Research on sector dynamic capacity evaluation

Air traffic capacity is a prerequisite and foundation of air traffic flow management (TFM). The sector capacity is usually given a static value in traditional TFM. In fact, it is time varying because it is always affected by weather, airspace status, and many other factors. A more refined TFM requires dynamic sector capacity. How to accurately evaluate dynamic capacity is the difficulty and development trend of sector capacity evaluation. The paper firstly presents the definition and the influential factors of the sector dynamic capacity. Then the characteristic of dynamic sector capacity affected by the main dynamic factor of severe weather is analyzed. In considering sector structure, civil aviation regulation, controller workload and airborne weather radar, sector dynamic capacity estimation model is set up. At last a prototype example is given to evaluate the sector dynamic capacity. The results verify the model is valid and practical.