Statistical Analysis of Airplane Pressure Altitude Datasets

Pressure altitude is primary data for airplane vertical positioning. Modern air transportation system uses flight leveling system based on pressure altitude readings. This altitude is calculated by a hypsometric equation based on International Standard Atmosphere model from measured static pressure data at altitude of airplane location. Pressure altitude on board heavy airplanes is measured by an Air Data System and shared with other airspace users and ground facilities of Air Traffic Control with a specific data link. Different errors affect reading of pressure altitude. In the paper, we provide a statistical analysis of pressure altitude data to create an error model. We consider usage of Probability Density Functions (PDF) to analyze error distribution. A Triple Univariate Generalized Error Distribution (TUGED), Double Exponential PDF (DEPDF), normal PDF (NPDF), and kernel PDF (KPDF) are used in statistical data analysis. In the numerical demonstration, we use pressure altitude data fixed by Flight Data Recording System to analyze PDF and estimate probabilities (risks) of cleared flight level loss.