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Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL)

Lab Overview

The Airspace Operations Laboratory evaluates air traffic management (ATM) concepts and explores human-system interaction issues in a simulation environment designed to allow rapid prototyping of NextGen concepts. This environment allows simulations of aircraft, ATM systems and communication infrastructure for both current day operations and a variety of future, highly automated concepts. Controller workstations are realistic emulations of today’s en route, Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) and oceanic systems, enhanced with various AOL-developed decision support tools and automated functions. 

Our main research goal is to evaluate future ATM systems and associated human-system interactions. These findings help the ATM community to understand how these issues relate to NextGen concepts, and can lead to better understanding of roles and responsibilities for human operators and automation in future ATM systems.

Research Overview

AOL research is focused on operational concepts in which controllers and pilots use integrated air/ground procedures and automation tools to efficiently manage aircraft arriving at a hub airport.

The bulk or our research is done in support of the Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP), which aims to “enable safe, sustainable, and efficient aviation transportation operations to benefit the flying public and ensure the global competitiveness of the U.S. aviation industry”.

Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO)

Natural Disasters are costing the US billions annually and have resulted in substantial loss of life, property and resources. Existing disaster response requires extensive manual collaboration and cooperation from a wide coalition of agencies and companies, which is more challenging in a limited communication infrastructure. As emergency responders adopt beneficial technology, they are faced with new challenges on top of existing ones. Ultimately, the timely relay of data into the hands of decision makers enables an efficient and effective response, scaled to the size and nature of the situation.

By leveraging and building on existing NASA technologies alongside government, industry, and academic partners, STEReO will improve efficiency and timeliness of the response, mitigation, and recovery phases of a disaster, ultimately saving lives and minimizing the cost to taxpayers.

To keep pace with the growing threat of wildland fires across the United States, NASA’s Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Operations (ACERO) project is developing airspace management technologies that will enable remotely piloted aircraft to identify, monitor, and suppress wildfires 24 hours a day.

NASA Portable Airspace Management System (PAMS) displays areas of management to test “fire” information sharing, airspace management, communication relay, and aircraft deconfliction capabilities during ACERO's first flight demonstration in Salinas, California in March 2025.
NASA Portable Airspace Management System (PAMS) displays areas of management to test “fire” information sharing, airspace management, communication relay, and aircraft deconfliction capabilities during ACERO’s first flight demonstration in Salinas, California in March 2025.
NASA/Brandon Torres-Navarrete

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM)

From air taxiing passengers and cargo in urban areas, to infrastructure inspection missions, the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) ecosystem offers newfound capabilities which have an increasing range of commercial applications and opportunities for use.  However, with new technologies come novel challenges, which is the case for integrating highly automated and remotely piloted aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS). To promote public confidence and help the community understand what it takes to conduct safe and efficient AAM operations in urban, suburban, rural, and regional environments, NASA has collaborated with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and industry partners to conduct a series of “National Campaigns”. The National Campaign (NC) testing series will help NASA identify AAM barriers, validate the state of the art, and inform the design and integration of vehicle, airspace, and ground infrastructure. 

Building on its legacy of work in air traffic management for crewed aircraft and its key role in the success of NASA’s Unmanned aircraft systems Traffic Management (UTM) efforts, the Airspace Operations Laboratory (AOL) is leading the integration and testing of the AAM ecosystem for the National Campaign that will help inform airspace integration requirements to enable safe, efficient, and scalable AAM operations in the NAS.

Advanced Air Mobility, with its many vehicle concepts and potential uses in both local and intraregional applications, is shown
Advanced Air Mobility, with its many vehicle concepts and potential uses in both local and intraregional applications, is shown in this illustration.
NASA / Lillian Gipson, Kyle Jenkins

Higher Airspace Traffic Management (HATM)

Higher Airspace Traffic Management (HATM) is an airspace management concept for National Airspace System (NAS) flight operations at or above FL600. As recent advances in technologies increase the demand in the stratospheric airspace, the diversity of vehicle types and the mixture of operating paradigms present new opportunities for a cooperative and interactive traffic management perspective.

HATM is part of the Future Airspace Research Area in the Air Traffic Management and Safety (ATMS) Project under the Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) within the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD).

Illustration showing the diverse range of high-altitude vehicles that will be studied in the Upper Class E Traffic Management (ETM) Project
Illustration showing the diverse range of high-altitude vehicles that will be studied in the Higher Airspace Traffic Management (HATM) Project at NASA Ames Research Center
Credit- NASA

Past Research Projects

  • Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Project’s National Campaign Testing Series
  • Federal UAS Service Supplier (FUSS)
  • Supplemental Data Serice Provider (SDSP)
  • Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations (STEReO)
  • Air Traffic Management Technology Demonstration 1 (ATD1)
  • Airspace Technology Demonstration 2 (ATD-2)
  • Crew Activity Tracking System (CATS)
  • CTAS-FMS Integration, 2002 (CFI’02)
  • Distributed Air Ground Traffic Management (DAG-TM) 
  • Functional Allocation
  • High Density Vertiplex (HDV)
  • Integrated Demand Management
  • Multi-Sector Planner 
  • New York Operational Improvements 
  • OASIS
  • SOAR
  • UTM

Personnel

NASA Scientists

  • Yasmin Arbab, M.S.
  • Lucas Cusano, M.S.
  • Jolene Feldman, M.A.
  • Gita Hodell, M.A.
  • Jeff Homola, M.S.
  • Vimmy Gujral, B.S.
  • Paul Lee, Ph.D.
  • Lynne Martin, Ph.D.
  • Joey Mercer, M.S.
  • Faisal Omar, M.S.
  • Lauren Roberts, M.A.

Research Associates

  • Debbie Bakowski, M.A.
  • Connie Brasil, M.S.
  • Michele Cencetti, Ph.D.
  • Eric Chevalley, Ph.D.
  • Kevin-Christian Garzon Galindo, Dipl. Ing
  • Darius Mahasin
  • Carmen Roberts
  • Abhinay Tiwari, M.S.

Systems Administrators

  • Latha Balijepalle
  • Duke Ho

Software Developers

  • Stefan Baldin
  • Bill McCarty
  • Mark Snycerski
  • Charles Walter, Ph.D.

Contact Us

Jeffrey Homola- jeffrey.r.homola@nasa.gov, 650-604-4603

Joey Mercer- joey.mercer@nasa.gov, 650-604-0017