Concept and Operation of the Performance Data Analysis and Reporting System  (2003)

"Since 1999 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been operating a prototype system for the collection, analysis, and reporting of performance-related data from the National Airspace System (NAS). This Performance Data Analysis and Reporting System (PDARS) has been installed at ten Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs), five Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities (TRACONs), two Regional Offices, and the FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Herndon, Virginia. The system generates and distributes over 100 reports daily for these facilities.

PDARS calculates a range of performance measures, including traffic counts, travel times, travel distances, traffic flows, and in-trail separations. It turns these measurement data into information useful to FAA facilities through an architecture that features (1) automatic collection and analysis of radar tracks and flight plans, (2) automatic generation and distribution of daily morning reports, (3) sharing of data and reports among facilities, and (4) support for exploratory and causal analysis.

PDARS applications at FAA facilities include performance measurement, route and airspace design, noise abatement analysis, training, and support for search and rescue. PDARS has also been used in a range of FAA and NASA studies. Examples are the measurement of actual benefits of the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex airspace, an analysis of the Los Angeles Arrival Enhancement Procedure (AEP), an analysis of the Phoenix Dryheat departure procedure, measurement of navigation accuracy of aircraft using area navigation (RNAV) en route, and a study on the detection and analysis of in-close approach changes. complex and extremely large datasets as well as reliable extraction of relevant information, allowing FAA users to quickly focus on operationally significant problems. The FAAÕs Office of System Capacity (ASC) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have sponsored the development of PDARS. ATAC Corporation in Sunnyvale, California, is the primary contractor supporting the PDARS program. ATACÕs role includes systems engineering, software development and deployment, system monitoring, training, and user support."

+ Chidester, Thomas

+ Braven, Win

Aeronautics, Analysis, APMS, Aviation, Data, PDARS, Performance, Reporting

den Braven, W., Schade, J., “Concept and Operation of the Performance Data Analysis and Reporting System”, SAE Advances in Aviation Safety Conference (ACE), Montrèal, September 8-12, 2003, paper number 2003-01-2976.