Evaluation of the Noise Benefits from Performing CDO in TMA Using OpenSky Data

Exposure to high levels of noise negatively affects human health. The noise produced by aircraft engines is strong enough to reach well beyond the limits suggested by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and it is estimated that the health and well-being of millions of people in Europe is impaired by aircraft noise. In this work, we estimate the potential benefits from performing a continuous descent operation (CDO) in the terminal maneuvering area (TMA), by comparing the noise and emissions calculated for the actual aircraft trajectories, obtained from the OpenSky network database, to a more efficient descent, where the engines are running at idle thrust. To model the aircraft performance, we use the Base of Aircraft Data (BADA), while IMPACT is used for calculating noise and emissions. We consider three European airports (Stockholm-Arlanda, Vienna and Dublin) focusing on the busy periods in 2019 and the most used arrival runways at each airport. Even though the highest levels of noise are experienced during take-off and the the initial climb-phase, where aircraft engines are operating at a high thrust setting, as well as during the final approach segment, where aircraft are closer to the ground, the results of our study suggest that noise-related benefits may also be obtained for areas further away from an airport when arriving aircraft perform CDOs. Additionally, we observe that while most of the emissions decrease when aircraft perform CDOs, some components, such as carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) may also increase.