Aircraft Noise and Flight Track Monitoring Systems

Aircraft Noise Monitoring Terminal

The terminals are installed in the surrounding of the airport.

Each terminal is equipped with a microphone, sound level meter, outdoor microphone and a station computer.

The acoustical equipment fulfills the requirements of IEC61672-1 for type 1 instrumentations. It has a type 1 approval from the PTB – a certified acoustic laboratory in Germany.

The NMT fulfils all requirements of the new specification ISO/CD 20906 “Acoustics - unattended monitoring of aircraft sound in the vicinity of airports”.

The Sound Level Meter and the PC are installed in a weatherproof cabinet equipped with a thermostatically-controlled fan and heater.

The mobile NMT can be powered by solar power or fuel cell.

The sound of every noise event is recorded for later analysis or source identification. The files are either stored as a sound file format (.wav) or as a compressed file (mp3) minimising the transfer time.

The NMT can be equipped with a Web cam. The camera takes a picture, whenever a noise event occurs. This function is very useful for example for controlling of motor test areas.

Central Noise and Flight Track Server

Topsonic's Noise and Flight Track System fulfils all the needs for modern monitoring of the aircraft noise impact on adjacent residents. It helps the airport get an objective overview and optimise noise abatement procedures.

Automatic functions accurately measure the noise, plot each flight track and correlate the noise to the specific aircraft. The system determines whether each aircraft is following the correct routes and pinpoints noise offenders.

Drawings of noise contours based on real movements and future scenarios are integrated features.

The NTMS Server processes the daily work of the monitoring system automatically without any user input.

• Data acquisition from the installed NMTs via Internet (DSL and 3G/UMTS/GPRS)
• Strage of all data into an Oracle database
• Handling of all parameter settings for the stations (NMTs)
• Analysis and filtering of radar data and recording of all tracks and correlation with SSR/Call-sign data and flight plan
• Automatic correlation of the measured noise to the noise source (Aircraft)
• Detection of tracks which leave the predefined route
• Transfer of the NMT status via Email to Topsonic for maintenance reasons or to other interested persons.
• Data acquisition from other airport systems e.g. traffic data from FIS or FIDS systems

Flight Track Monitoring and Analysis

The radar module guarantees a 100 % correlation of flight and measured noise. The module supports several kinds of track display.

• A mass plot of selected flights
• real time display of the radar data
• Replay of stored tracks in 2D or 3 D together with the noise values of all NMTs.
• The Track density plots illustrate the concentration of flight paths around the airport.
• The climb profile shows the altitude versus the flown distance
• Filling and correcting the flight plan: The radar module calculates with the given radarplots, which runway was used, the A/D and the SID/STAR of every flight. Differences to the flight plan are marked and missing data are filled in automatically. These information can be transferred back to an FIS or FIDS system
• The system is able to calculate means tracks for every arrival and departure route. These mean tracks can be used for the improvement of the noise modelling.
• Detection of all flight movements with deviations from the pre-defined routes and corridors.
• Detection of adherence of CDA (Continuous Decent Approach)
• Comprehensive gate penetration module with horizontal and vertical gates.
• An export of the tracks to Google Earth® is supported.
• Display of real time flight tracks on Internet with Top-Web module

TOP Web: Flight Tracks on the Internet

TOP-Web Monitor is a display of noise levels and flight tracks around the airport on the internet. It can be integrated in the airport Web site.

It enables all internet users to view all flight tracks in the area around the airport in “near-live” mode (with a 30 or 60 minutes delay) and in a “historical replay” mode for a user defined time period in the past.

TOP Web Monitor answers questions of the residents about specific flights. It demonstrates the openness of the airport and improves the trust between residents and the airport. The user can click on each track and gets additional flight information (e.g. call-sign, aircraft type and destination ).

Topsonic uses GOOGLE-MAPs as background mapping. The user can pan the map and zoom in and zoom out. Satellite image is available. The speed of the replay can be changed. The use of TOP-Web Monitor is absolutely easy and requires no special computer skills of the user.

TOP-Web Monitor displays the information very clearly.

Together with the flight tracks, noise levels of the installed Noise Monitoring Terminals will be shown parallel to the track replay.

If the user clicks on the location of the Noise Monitoring Terminal he gets more information about the NMT and the location.