The Smart Skies Project

Smart Skies is an international research project exploring the development and demonstration of future aviation technologies which facilitate the more efficient utilisation of airspace for both manned and unmanned aircraft. These technologies include autonomous vision-based collision avoidance systems, autonomous airspace separation management systems and a mobile ground-based radar system to support non-segregated UAS operations within the NAS. This presentation will provide an introduction to the key programs of research, detail results from recent flight trial activities and will outline future directions for the project.

The smart skies project

This paper describes the Smart Skies project, an ambitious and world-leading research endeavor exploring the development of key enabling technologies, which support the efficient utilization of airspace by manned and unmanned airspace users. This paper provides a programmatic description of the research and development of: an automated separation management system, a mobile aircraft tracking system, and aircraft-based sense-and-act technologies. A summary of the results from a series of real-world flight testing campaigns is also presented.

Estimation of illuminance on the south facing surfaces for clear skies in Iran

Background: Daylight availability data are essential for designing effectively day lighted buildings. In respect to no available daylight availability data in Iran, illuminance data on the south facing vertical surfaces were estimated using a proper method. Methods: An illuminance measuring set was designed for measuring vertical illuminances for standard times over 15 days at one hour intervals from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at three measuring stations (Hamadan, Eshtehard and Kerman). Measuring data were used to confirm predicted by the IESNA method. Results: Measurement of respective illuminances on the south vertical surfaces resulted in minimum values of 10.5 KLx, mean values of 33.59 KLx and maximum values of 79.6 KLx. Conclusion: In this study was developed a regression model between measured and calculated data of south facing vertical illuminance. This model, have a good linear correlation between measured and calculated values (r= 0.892).

The smart skies project : enabling technologies for future airspace environments

This paper summarises the achievements of the Smart Skies Project, a three-year, multi-award winning international project that researched, developed and extensively flight tested four enabling aviation technologies: an electrooptical mid-air collision avoidance system, a static obstacle avoidance system, a mobile ground-based air traffic surveillance system, and a global automated airspace separation management system. The project included the development of manned and unmanned flight test aircraft, which were used to characterise the performance of the prototype systems for a range of realistic scenarios under a variety of environmental conditions. In addition to the collection of invaluable flight data, the project achieved world-firsts in the demonstration of future automated collision avoidance and separation management concepts. This paper summarises these outcomes, the overall objectives of the project, the research and the development of the prototype systems, the engineering of the flight test systems, and the results obtained from flight-testing.

Towards closure between measured and modelled UV under clear skies at four diverse sites

The purpose of this work is determine the extent of closure between measurements and models of UV irradiances at diverse sites using state of the art instruments, models, and the best available data as inputs to the models. These include information about aerosol optical depth (unfortunately not extending down as far into the UVB region as desirable because such information is not generally available), ozone column amounts, as well as vertical profiles of temperature. We concentrate on clear-sky irradiances, and report the results in terms of UV Index (UVI)

Achieving open skies

Types of Air Transport Trading Agreements: - Bilateral - "Open Skies" - Plurilateral - Multilateral

Reaching for the skies: Time and turbulence in digital technologies and practices

This research examines dynamics associated with new representational technologies in complex organizations through a study of the use of a Single Model Environment, prototyping and simulation tools in the mega-project to construct Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, London. The ambition of the client, BAA. was to change industrial practices reducing project costs and time to delivery through new contractual arrangements and new digitally-enabled collaborative ways of working. The research highlights changes over time and addresses two areas of 'turbulence' in the use of: 1) technologies, where there is a dynamic tension between desires to constantly improve, change and update digital technologies and the need to standardise practices, maintaining and defending the overall integrity of the system; and 2) representations, where dynamics result from the responsibilities and liabilities associated with sharing of digital representations and a lack of trust in the validity of data from other firms. These dynamics are tracked across three stages of this well-managed and innovative project and indicate the generic need to treat digital infrastructure as an ongoing strategic issue.

Effects of absorbing aerosols in cloudy skies: a satellite study over the Atlantic Ocean

We present a method for deriving the radiative effects of absorbing aerosols in cloudy scenes from satellite retrievals only. We use data of 2005–2007 from various passive sensors aboard satellites of the “A-Train” constellation. The study area is restricted to the tropical- and subtropical Atlantic Ocean. To identify the dependence of the local planetary albedo in cloudy scenes on cloud liquid water path and aerosol optical depth (AOD), we perform a multiple linear regression. The OMI UV-Aerosolindex serves as an indicator for absorbing-aerosol presence. In our method, the aerosol influences the local planetary albedo through direct- (scattering and absorption) and indirect (Twomey) aerosol effects. We find an increase of the local planetary albedo (LPA) with increasing AOD of mostly scattering aerosol and a decrease of the LPA with increasing AOD of mostly absorbing aerosol. These results allow us to derive the direct aerosol effect of absorbing aerosols in cloudy scenes, with the effect of cloudy-scene aerosol absorption in the tropical- and subtropical Atlantic contributing (+21.2±11.1)×10−3 Wm−2 to the global top of the atmosphere radiative forcing.

Invasion from the skies

Increased competition and shrinking budgets have forced public service broadcasters around the world to reconsider their role. Doordarshan, India’s public service television network, shares the problems faced by its counterparts in more developed countries. Although it continues to enjoy the luxury of being the only television network broadcasting its programs from within national boundaries, it has had to change its policies and programming to compete with foreign television channels including Murdoch’s Star TV. However, it is the Indian audience that has benefited most from this competition from the skies in the form of improved quality and quantity of programs. This paper reports on an audience survey carried out in India earlier this year to gauge television viewers’ perception of these benefits. The paper also gives background on the developments in thetelevision industry in India.

Burning Skies: A Novella

Burning Skies is a seventy-page novella completed as an Honors Thesis in Creative Writing. The story is set in Los Angeles, California, during the 1992 riots surrounding the controversy over the beating of Rodney King by four white police officers. The story is toldthrough the perspectives of the four main characters: Erin, a woman who is four months pregnant with a baby she desperately wants; her husband David, who has moved the couple out to California so that he can pursue his dream of being a cinematographer; Abby, David’s deeplyreligious younger sister who has unexpectedly flown out to Los Angeles from her home in Indiana after discovering her husband’s infidelity; and Cameron, a black man training to be a pastor who Abby has befriended through her years of missionary work in Los Angeles.The novella follows the events of the riots as they break out all across the city and the personal dramas of each of the four main characters, looking at how the public interacts with theprivate and examining the ways in which explosions in the public and political sphere can ricochet into our private and personal lives. It is a story about the political and racial climate in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, but it is also a story about four human beings, about their needs and their desires, about their struggles to survive in an unpredictable world. The novella showcases the skills and techniques the author has learned after four years of studying fiction at Bucknell University; it can best be described as a work of realistic fiction.

Holes in the skies over NATO's Central European member states. OSW Commentary No. 119, 22.10.2013

Over the past few months, four Central European states have made decisions which will determine the shape of their air forces over the next decade. On 11 October, Romania signed a contract under which it will buy twelve used US F-16A/B multi-role fighter aircraft from Portugal. In August, Slovakia signed contracts with Russia’s MiG for repairs and the limited modernisation of its twelve MiG-29 fighter aircraft currently in service. The Czech Republic entered into a preliminary agreement in July with Sweden on extending the lease of fourteen JAS-39 Gripen multi-role fighter aircraft (the new Czech government will hammer out the details following the parliamentary election). Bulgaria, which has been facing financial problems and political instability, in June postponed the purchase of new (non-Soviet) combat aircraft at least until the end of this year. If Sofia decides to buy any within the next few years, these will be not more than twelve relatively old and worn-out machines (most likely F-16A/B from Portuguese or Dutch army surplus). Given the fact that Hungary in 2012 made the same decision regarding its fourteen Gripen aircraft as the Czech Republic, there are good grounds to claim that the capabilities Central European NATO member states have to take action in airspace are durably limited. The region’s saturation with combat aircraft is the lowest when compared to the entire continent (with the exception of the Baltic states). Furthermore, the machines to be used in the coming decade will be the oldest and the least advanced technologically (all of them belong to the so-called “fourth generation”, the roots of which date back to the 1970s). The problem with gaining full interoperability within NATO has not been resolved in its Central European member states. By modernising its MiG-29 aircraft, Slovakia is to say the least postponing the achievement of interoperability once again. Bulgaria will gain interoperability by buying any Western combat aircraft. However, it is very unlikely to introduce new machines into service earlier than at the end of the present decade. Since the introduction of new fifth generation multi-role combat aircraft or transitional 4+ generation machines in the region’s air forces is unrealistic, the defence of the airspace of NATO member states in Central Europe can be termed an ever more porous sky.