Technical Addendum to the Guidance for Noise Screening of Air Traffic Actions

MP130001 MITRE PRODUCT Technical Addendum to the Guidance for Noise Screening of Air Traffic Actions Koffi A. Amefia February 2013 The contents of this material reflect the views of the author and/or the Director of the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or the Department of Transportation (DOT). Neither the FAA nor the DOT makes any warranty or guarantee, or promise, expressed or implied, concerning the content or accuracy of the views expressed herein. This is the copyright work of The MITRE Corporation and was produced for the U.S. Government under Contract Number DTFAWA-10-C-00080 and is subject to Federal Aviation Administration Acquisition Management System Clause 3.5-13, Rights in Data-General, Alt. III and Alt. IV (Oct. 1996). No other use other than that granted to the U.S. Government, or to those acting on behalf of the U.S. Government, under that Clause is authorized without the express written permission of The MITRE Corporation. For further information, please contact The MITRE Corporation, Contract Office, 7515 Colshire Drive, McLean, VA 22102 (703) 983-6000. 2013 The MITRE Corporation. The Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free right to publish or reproduce this document, or to allow others to do so, for “Government Purposes Only.” MP130001 MITRE PRODUCT Technical Addendum to the Guidance for Noise Screening of Air Traffic Actions Sponsor: The Federal Aviation Administration Koffi A. Amefia Dept. No.: F072 Project No.: 0213BB03-2B Outcome No.: 3 PBWP Reference: 3-2.1-2 February 2013 “Wind Farm and Environmental Assessment Processes” For Release to all FAA This document was prepared for authorized distribution only. It has not been approved for public release. ©2013 The MITRE Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Abstract The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Traffic Organization (ATO) established a noise screening process to help determine the need for a detailed noise analysis of air traffic actions. The MITRE Corporation’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) prepared the Guidance for Noise Screening of Air Traffic Actions [1] to assist the FAA and others involved in air traffic noise screening. This report documents the technical approach used to develop the noise screening tools thereby providing a basis for future updates if required. iii Acknowledgements The author acknowledges the contributions of Donna Warren and Terry English of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and Angela Signore, Neal Westlund and Fred Bankert of The MITRE Corporation’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD). iv Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1-1 2 Background 2-1 3 Noise Screening Tools 3-1 3.1 Operations Test 3-1 3.2 Traffic Test 3-3 3.3 Lateral Movement Test 3-8 3.4 Altitude/Operations Test 3-11 3.5 Overlay Test 3-15 4 Summary 4-1 5 List of References 5-1 Appendix A Detailed Data A-1 Appendix B Acronym List B-1 v List of Figures Figure 3-1. SEL versus Altitude Curve for the 747200 and 747400 Aircraft 3-5 Figure 3-2. TRAF Test Spreadsheet Tool 3-8 Figure 3-3. Illustration of LAT Test 3-9 Figure 3-4. LAT Test At/Below 3,000 feet AGL 3-10 Figure 3-5. LAT Test Above 3,000 feet AGL 3-10 Figure 3-6. A/O Test At/Below 3,000 feet AGL 3-13 Figure 3-7. A/O Test Between 3,001 feet AGL and 7,000 feet AGL 3-14 Figure 3-8. A/O Test Between 7,001 feet AGL and 10,000 feet AGL 3-14 Figure 3-9. RNVO Concept 3-15 Figure 3-10. Illustration of Line of Sight Distances to Centerline Receiver 3-16 Figure 3-11. RNVO Test 3-17 vi List of Tables Table 3-1. Noise Screening Change Thresholds 3-1 Table 3-2. OPS Test for Airports 3-2 Table 3-3. Sample Database Information for 747200 Aircraft 3-4 Table 3-4. TRAF Test for Departure Routes or Procedures 3-6 Table 3-5. TRAF Test for Arrival Routes or Procedures 3-7 Table 3-6. ATNS Decision Table 3 3-12 Table A-1. Aircraft Types for Traffic Test A-1 vii 1 Introduction This document provides the technical background for the tools and recommendations contained in the Guidance for Noise Screening of Air Traffic Actions (henceforth referred to as the Guidance) [1]. The Guidance itself is an update to the 2009 Guidance for Noise Screening of Air Traffic Actions) [2]. The noise screening process can be used to determine the potential for noise impacts of proposed air traffic actions. The document is divided into four sections and one appendix including this introduction. Section 2 provides a brief overview of the noise screening process in light of the requirements of this task. Section 3 discusses updated tools and limitations. Section 4 provides an overview of the document. 1-1 2 Background The noise screening process is a solid and repeatable approach to identify extraordinary circumstances and/or the potential for significant noise impacts as discussed in the Guidance. The process leverages existing Federal Aviation Admiration (FAA) tools and policies to help identify the need for detailed noise analyses of proposed air traffic actions. Given the large number of air traffic proposals subject to review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969 [3] and its implementing regulations – Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Regulations [4] and FAA Order 1050.1E, Environmental Impacts: Policies and Procedures [5] – noise screening streamlines the review process by providing an early indication of the potential noise impacts of proposed air traffic actions. Noise screening tools offer multiple layers of review to help decide if a detailed noise analysis is required. In general, these tools provide quick but conservative results, allowing the user to focus resources on actions likely to result in significant noise impacts. 2-1 3 Noise Screening Tools This section documents the methodology and limitations of noise screening tools in the Guidance to include the Operations test (OPS), the Traffic test (TRAF), the Lateral Movement test (LAT), the Altitude/Operations test (A/O), and the Area Navigation (RNAV) Overlay test (RNVO). These tools evaluate the potential noise impact of proposed air traffic actions relative to the noise screening thresholds identified in Table 3-1 and discussed in greater detail in the Guidance. The tests also consider FAA altitude limits for air traffic noise analyses, i.e., below 10,000 feet Above Ground Level (AGL) for departures, 7,000 feet AGL for arrivals, or up to 18,000 feet AGL over national parks or wilderness areas [6]. Based on the thresholds in Table 3-1, a detailed noise analyses is required when a proposed air traffic action would cause: 1. An increase of 1.5 decibel (dB) or greater for areas experiencing Day-Night Average Sound Levels (DNL) of 65 dB or greater. 2. An increase of 3 dB or more for areas experiencing DNL 60-65 dB. 3. An increase of 5 dB or more for areas experiencing DNL 45-60 dB. Table 3-1. Noise Screening Change Thresholds Proposed Action DNL DNL Increase with Proposed Value (dB) Action (dB) 65 + 1.5 dB(1) 60-65 3.0 dB(2) 45-60 5.0 dB(3) Source: (1) FAA Order 1050.1E, Appendix A, 14.3; Part 150, Sec. 150.21(2) (d); FICON 1992 [7] (2) FAA Order 1050.1E, Appendix A, 14.4c; FICON 1992 (3) FAA Order 1050.1E, Appendix A, 14.5e. Inputs to noise screening tests are developed on an average annual day (AAD) basis, i.e., data representative of long-term variations of airport operations such as runway configurations, fleet mix, number of operations, etc. The objective of updating noise screening tools is to provide additional flexibility to the users within the limitations of FAA policies. The following sections document the basis for the noise screening tests in detail. 3.1 Operations Test The OPS test helps determine if noise screening is required based on the total number of operations at the airport of interest. The OPS test is based on FAA Order 1050.1E, paragraph 14.6 requirement that no noise analysis is needed for proposals involving Design Group I and II airplanes (wingspan less than 79 feet) in Approach Categories A through D (landing speed less than 166 knots) operating at airports whose forecast operations in the period covered by the environmental review do not exceed 700 jet operations (2 average daily operations) or 90,000 annual propeller operations (247 average daily operations). To account for the increased 3-1 sensitivity to noise during certain periods, proposed operations between 10:00 p.m. and 07:00 a.m. must be multiplied by 10. In California, proposed operations between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. must also be multiplied by 3. Based on the above guidance, 700 jet operations were equated to 90,000 propeller operations such that the following direct relationship would be true: # = 700 (0.0077778 × # ) # is the number of jet operations not −to exceed 700 # is the number of propeller operations not to exceed 90,000 The above equation yields the maximum allowable number of jet operations given the number propeller operations (rounded to the nearest 5,000 operations) or vice versa. Table 3-2 shows the resulting combinations of propeller and jet operations that must be exceeded to warrant further noise screening. The user can start with either the number of propeller operations or the number of jet operations.

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