Closed
Programme Category
EU Competitive Programmes
Programme Name
SESAR Joint Undertaking
Programme Description
The SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking is an institutionalised European partnership between private and public sector partners set up to accelerate through research and innovation the delivery of the Digital European Sky.
Identifier Code
HORIZON-SESAR-2022-DES-ER-01-WA2-7
Call
ATM application-oriented Research for Aviation Green Deal
Summary
Proposals for work on areas other than those listed below are welcome, provided they include adequate background and justification to ensure clear traceability with the R&I needs set out in the SRIA for the aviation green deal flagship.
Detailed Call Description
- Geometric altimetry. In current operations, aircraft cruising at a constant barometric pressure need to climb/descend when flying across isobars, which in the case of a climb causes extra fuel-burn. This extra fuel-burn may be offset if, thanks to it, the aircraft stays at its optimum (or at least closer to optimum) pressure altitude / temperature for a long enough time, but otherwise fuel may be wasted. There is a need to assess the potential environmental benefits of moving to geometric altimetry, considering not only the impact on aircraft that are at cruising level but also the other concepts that would be unlocked by it, for example reduced vertical separation minima (RVSM 2) and elimination of the wasted airspace allocated to the ‘transition layer’. Research is also needed to develop an operational concept to move all aviation (en route and TMA, general aviation, airliners, civilian and military traffic, in all airspace classes) to geometric altimetry. Geometric altimetry will also facilitate the integration of manned aviation with drones that are already using geometric altimetry in current operations, and also integration with HAOs (precision of barometric altimeters above Flight Level 800 is challenging).
- Evolution of separation minima, including RVSM 2. Building on the work of the SESAR 2020 ER project R-WAKE, the objective is to develop and validate a concept of operations to enable the reduction of vertical separation minima to 500 ft in a geometric altimetry environment, potentially in combination with a concept for new dynamic and/or geometry-dependent separation minima in the horizontal dimension. It is expected that the RVSM 2 concept will bring increased capacity (an estimated increase of 20 %) and reduced CO2 emissions by making it possible for more aircraft to cruise at their preferred altitude. The scope of the research includes investigating advanced modes of separation (e.g. dynamic separation) based on predictive modelling and ML techniques and enabled by further automation and improved connectivity. In addition, the dynamic calculation of the necessary separation parameters between aircraft (horizontal and vertical) to meet a minimum acceptable safety level (i.e. moving away from pre-determined separation standards) should be addressed. The separation minima to be developed include both minimum radar separation (MRS), which aims to keep the risk of collision sufficiently low to meet the target level of safety (TLS), and minimum wake separation (MWS), which aims to keep the risk of wake encounter sufficiently low to meet the TLS; the minima to be applied in operations will always be the maximum of the applicable MRS and TLS. The dynamic weather- and geometry-dependent pairwise distance-/time-based separation minima for en-route airspace and the TMA will allow the separation minimum between two aircraft to be reduced under certain weather conditions (e.g. depending on the location of the tropopause, on wind); the separation to be applied will be the greatest of the MRS and the MWS.
- Introduction of environmental considerations into the European route-charging scheme. This element builds on the evolution of separation minima as described in the previous bullet point and covers research into the potential evolution of the route-charging scheme to incorporate environmental considerations, such as lower charges for flying at valley hours, lower charges for flying at suboptimal flight levels (or flying longer 2D routes) to reduce non-CO2 impacts, lower charges for lighter flights accepting voluntary level-capping in order to make the best flight levels available to heavier aircraft and higher charges for aircraft with lower load factors or for business aircraft (R&I need: accelerating decarbonisation through operational and business incentivisation).
Call Total Budget
€10,000,000
Thematic Categories
- Other Services
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
Eligibility for Participation
- Central Government
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
Beneficiaries will be subject to the following additional dissemination obligations:
– Beneficiaries must make proactive efforts to share on a royalty free basis, in a timely manner and as appropriate, all relevant results with the other grants awarded under the same call.
– Beneficiaries must acknowledge and incorporate these obligations in the proposal, outlining the efforts they will make towards meeting them and in Annex I to the Grant Agreement.
Call Opening Date
07/04/2022
Call Closing Date
13/10/2022