Enhanced Vertical Navigation Using Barometric Measurements

Abstract

This paper introduces a technique to transform between geometric and barometric estimates of altitude and vice-versa. Leveraging forecast numerical weather models, the method is unbiased and has a vertical error with a standard deviation of around 30 m (100 ft), regardless of aircraft altitude, which makes it significantly more precise than established comparable conversion functions. This result may find application in various domains of civil aviation, including vertical RNP, systemized airspace, and automatic landing systems.

Keywords

• aircraft navigation
• barometric altitude
• GNSS altitude
• numerical weather model
• vertical required navigation performance (RNAV)/(RNP)
• aircraft vertical guidance