Airports

Characterizing Lightning-Strike Hazard to Airport Facilities: A Case Study of Baltimore Washington International Airport

He, Yiyi
Lindbergh, Sarah
Jasenka Rakas
Graves, C.M.
2019

As projections indicate, the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) vulnerability to lightning strikes is growing due to increased severity and frequency of convective storms. Lightning hazards pose risks to personnel safety and may cause power outages, and therefore they can impact reliability and performance of the airport's facilities if they are not appropriately fortified. Although lightning-flash data with high temporal and spatial accuracy is available for the continental U.S., measuring airport facility lightning-induced outages remains challenging. Studies have shown that lightning-...

Characterizing Lightning-Strike Hazard to Airport Facilities

Jasenka Rakas
2019

This article consists of a collection of slides from the author's conference presentation.

Failures of Critical Systems at Airports: Impact on Aircraft Operations and Safety

Jasenka Rakas
Bauranov, Aleksandar
Messika, Benjamin
2018

Failures of critical systems at airports can significantly impact aircraft operations and cause substantial safety risks. This study develops a generalized method for measuring the impacts of unscheduled communication, navigation and surveillance systems outages on airport operational performance (i.e. throughput) and safety. The proposed method consists of two separate models – the aggregate and the disaggregate model. The aggregate model is a regression model that analyzes flight data, which are averaged per quarter hour and obtained from the Aviation System Performance Metrics database...

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Mitigation Strategies within the Airport Sustainability Evaluation Process

Monsalud, Andrew
Ho, Denny
Jasenka Rakas
2015

In recent years the aviation industry has initiated new sustainability efforts as a response to society's greater needs for living in healthier and more sustainable environments. Significant attention has been directed toward aircraft and their contribution to greenhouse gas emission. As we look at the aviation system more holistically, especially in the U.S., however, we discover a lack of comprehensive research addressing sustainability evaluation standards in airports. Sustainability, in a system as complex as an airport, can encompass many different areas such as water conservation,...

Quantifying the Resilience of the U.S. Domestic Aviation Network During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Bauranov, Aleksandar
Parks, Steven
Jiang, Xuan
Jasenka Rakas
Marta Gonzalez
2021

This paper analyzes the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the United States air transportation network between March and August 2020. Despite dramatic reductions in flight and passenger volumes, the network remained robust and resilient against perturbation. Although 24% of airports closed, the reduction in network efficiency was only 5.1%, which means airlines continued to serve most destinations. A deeper analysis of airport closures reveals that 1) small peripheral airports were the most likely to be closed; 2) socio-economic and epidemiological factors characterizing the airport’s region...

Reduce Aviation’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions through Immediately Feasible and Affordable Gate Electrification

Greer, Fiona
Jasenka Rakas
Horvath, Arpad
2021

Aircraft at airport gates require power and air conditioning, provided by fossil fuel-combusting equipment, to maintain functionality and thermal comfort. We estimate the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and economic implications from electrifying gate operations for 2354 commercial-traffic airports in the world. Here we show that complete electrification could yield GHG reductions of 63%–97% per gate operation relative to current practice, with greater reductions correlated with low-carbon electricity. Economic payback periods average just 1–2 years. Shifting to complete...

System and Method for Configuring Airport Terminals Using Mobile Terminal Gates

Jasenka Rakas
2019

An airport terminal, having mobile terminal gates which are maneuverable to enable a controlling entity to configure the arrangement of terminal gate by quantity, type and/or spacing.

Airports and Environmental Sustainability: A Comprehensive Review

Greer, Fiona
Jasenka Rakas
Horvath, Arpad
2020

Over 2500 airports worldwide provide critical infrastructure that supports 4 billion annual passengers. To meet changes in capacity and post-COVID-19 passenger processing, airport infrastructure such as terminal buildings, airfields, and ground service equipment require substantial upgrades. Aviation accounts for 2.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, but that estimate excludes airport construction and operation. Metrics that assess an airport’s sustainability, in addition to environmental impacts that are sometimes unaccounted for (e.g. water consumption), are necessary for a more...

Airport Exposure to Lightning Strike Hazard in the Contiguous United States

He, Yiyi
Lindbergh, Sarah
Graves, Coolidge
Jasenka Rakas
2021

Reliability of the air transportation system heavily depends on the performance of communication, navigation, and surveillance facilities in the National Airspace System (NAS). These facilities are prone to outages caused by convective weather, such as lightning. Current lightning safety standards and risk assessments focus solely on lightning occurrence and omit the effect of lightning intensity from hazard characterization. We propose methods that incorporate lightning intensity and occurrence parameters to better understand the impact of lightning strike on the NAS using the National...

Future Climate Scenarios for Runway Length: Assessment of Wet/Dry Runway Surface Conditions With Observational Precipitation Data

Jasenka Rakas
Lukovic, Jelena
2021

This report presents a geostatistical method for analyzing wet/dry runway surface conditions using observational precipitation data for the United States (U.S.). Using the most recent U.S. Fourth National Climate Assessment as a primary resource, observed precipitation changes related to wet/dry days in the U.S. and their regional trends were identified. Two sources of daily U.S. observed precipitation data were used: (1) the National Weather Service (NWS) Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) and (2) the Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). Then, the regression kriging method was...