Integrated aircraft noise and emissions modelling platform

IMPACT is a web-based modelling platform that enables consistent trade-off analyses between fuel burn and emissions, on the one hand and noise, on the other hand.

Based on an extensive reference-data warehouse, it includes a new aircraft trajectory calculator, which computes complete aircraft trajectories from the departing to the arrival airport, along with engine thrust and fuel flow information.

IMPACT can be accessed remotely through a dedicated, secured portal, and all calculations are performed on dedicated servers hosted by EUROCONTROL.

Impact delivers  noise contour shape files, surface and population counts based on the European Environment Agency population database, estimates of fuel burn and emissions for a wide range of pollutants, and gridded (i.e. geo-referenced) inventories of emissions within the landing and take-off portion, as an introduction to further, more detailed, local air quality assessments.

In the framework of the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP/10) work programme, IMPACT was thoroughly reviewed against other CAEP-approved models and contributed to the CO2 standard analysis as well as the greenhouse gas and local air quality trends assessment. 

IMPACT users do not need to install any specific software on their machines. They only need a web browser to connect to the IMPACT web-portal, upload their input data, launch calculations, and visualise and download the results.

 Impact allows:

• an easy update of the various databases without the need to redistribute a new software package;
• the flexibility to select the database versions to be used in a study;
• the secure storage of sensitive aircraft reference data, such as EUROCONTROL's Aircraft Performance Model (BADA) data;
• a complete trajectory, runway-to-runway, fuel burn and emission calculation;

IMPACT uses the most recent BADA 4 and aircraft noise and performance databases for fuel flow and noise calculations. Additionally, IMPACT supports different types of input data (real-time and model-based simulations, real data)  and allows the theoretical definition of flight procedures.

IMPACT supports ICAO and European environmental policy and trend assessments.

Finally, IMPACT is compliant with the most recent editions the noise calculation method recommended in ICAO Doc 9911 and ECAC Doc. 29, and with SESAR environmental assessment requirements. It is the recommended assessment tool for this European ATM research programme.

Since 2000, EUROCONTROL has developed a series of models to support our member states and, by extension, the entire aviation community, in estimating the magnitude of the environmental impacts of current or future air traffic movements. These models have already been significantly improved upon, given that knowledge on aviation and environment modelling has grown and computing technologies evolved.

The current environmental tool suite of EUROCONTROL consists of three main models: the Advanced emission model (AEM), Open-ALAQS, and Impact.

All three of these models successfully passed ICAO’s stress tests in 2008-2009 and have since become part of the approved suite of assessment models used by ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP).

These models are designed to assess future regulatory policy options such as introducing tighter aircraft noise and emissions standards and future trends.

AEM, Open-ALAQS, and IMPACT are also the recommended models for conducting environmental impact assessments in SESAR.