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Topic · Aerospace Engineering

Air Traffic Management and Optimization

Air Traffic Management and Optimization is a research topic within Aerospace Engineering. Science Explorer counts 18k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on various aspects of air traffic management, including conflict detection and resolution, aircraft scheduling, collision avoidance, delay prediction, and the integration of unmanned aircraft systems. It also addresses topics such as urban air mobility, traffic flow management, airport operations, and risk assessment in civil aviation.

  • Air Traffic Management
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Aircraft Scheduling
  • Collision Avoidance
  • Urban Air Mobility
  • Delay Prediction
  • Unmanned Aircraft Systems
  • Traffic Flow Management
  • Airport Operations
  • Risk Assessment
Research works
18k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
1.8k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+41%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
38% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Air Traffic Management and Optimization

Which countries lead Air Traffic Management and Optimization research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (1.4k and 938 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 1.4k works
  2. 2 United States 938 works
  3. 3 India 268 works
  4. 4 Germany 245 works
  5. 5 United Kingdom 212 works
  6. 6 Türkiye 145 works
  7. 7 Italy 115 works
  8. 8 France 109 works
  9. 9 Spain 108 works
  10. 10 Brazil 99 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 37.8%United States: 26.1%India: 7.5%Germany: 6.8%6 others listed: 21.9%38%largest
China1,358 · 37.8%United States938 · 26.1%India268 · 7.5%Germany245 · 6.8%6 others listed787 · 21.9%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Air Traffic Management and Optimization research?

By volume in 2022-now, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics publishes the most Air Traffic Management and Optimization research, followed by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres and National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 125 works
  2. 2 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 97 works
  3. 3 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationUnited States 84 works
  4. 4 Civil Aviation University of ChinaChina 84 works
  5. 5 Beihang UniversityChina 78 works
  6. 6 Civil Aviation Flight University of ChinaChina 63 works
  7. 7 Embry–Riddle Aeronautical UniversityUnited States 42 works
  8. 8 Cranfield UniversityUnited Kingdom 39 works
  9. 9 Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 37 works
  10. 10 Georgia Institute of TechnologyUnited States 37 works

Who are the leading researchers in Air Traffic Management and Optimization?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Air Traffic Management and Optimization include Lídia Morawska, James Thomas and Kai You Wang.

  1. 1 Lídia Morawska Australia 244k citations
  2. 2 James Thomas United Kingdom 242k citations
  3. 3 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  4. 4 John H. Seinfeld United States 140k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Air Traffic Management and Optimization?

The most cited paper in Air Traffic Management and Optimization is "Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of Empirical and Theoretical Research" (Sandra G. Hart, Lowell E. Staveland, 1988), with 14,841 citations. Next come "Pedestrian Tracking with Shoe-Mounted Inertial Sensors" (1,407) and "A review of conflict detection and resolution modeling methods" (1,066).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of Empirical and Theoretical Research Sandra G. Hart, Lowell E. Staveland · Advances in psychology Book chapter 1988 14,841
2 Pedestrian Tracking with Shoe-Mounted Inertial Sensors Eric M. Foxlin · IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications Nov 2005 1,407
3 A review of conflict detection and resolution modeling methods James K. Kuchar, Yang Lh · IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems 2000 1,066
4 Conflict resolution for air traffic management: a study in multiagent hybrid systems Claire Jennifer Tomlin, George J. Pappas, S. Shankar Sastry · IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control Apr 1998 1,048
5 Situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT) Mica Robertson Endsley Conference paper 6 Jan 2003 945
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Air Traffic Management and Optimization research done?

The largest centres of Air Traffic Management and Optimization research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Nanjing (China), Xi'an (China) and Cologne (Germany). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Luocheng, Daytona and Hampton.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 319 works
  2. 2 NanjingChina 179 works
  3. 3 Xi'anChina 117 works
  4. 4 CologneGermany 96 works
  5. 5 TianjinChina 96 works
  6. 6 ShanghaiChina 91 works
  7. 7 LuochengChina 63 works
  8. 8 Hong KongChina 56 works
  9. 9 TokyoJapan 55 works
  10. 10 LondonUnited Kingdom 50 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. LuochengCN · 62.7 works191×
  2. DaytonaUS · 41.6 works122×
  3. HamptonUS · 30.7 works69×
  4. CranfieldGB · 39.3 works63×
  5. São José dos CamposBR · 30.3 works34×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Air Traffic Management and Optimization than the world average.

See Air Traffic Management and Optimization on the map

Where is the best place to study Air Traffic Management and Optimization?

Among universities, judged by research, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Beihang University and Nanyang Technological University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 16.55%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Hong Kong Polytechni…Nanyang Technologica…Beihang UniversityNanjing University o…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hong Kong Polytechnic UniversityChina 84.027.1%8.5×31 +239.2%
2Beihang UniversityChina 73.221.6%16.7×78 +138.8%
3Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 72.921.8%10.3×35 +5.3%
4Nanjing University of Aeronautics and AstronauticsChina 65.311.4%33.1×125 +95.4%
5Cranfield UniversityUnited Kingdom 62.914.0%69.1×39 +50.5%
6Imperial College LondonUnited Kingdom 58.222.3%1.9×8 +42.7%
7Civil Aviation University of ChinaChina 55.89.9%139.3×84 +85.4%
8Delft University of TechnologyNetherlands 55.713.4%13.0×37 -11.5%
9Civil Aviation Flight University of ChinaChina 54.310.7%223.4×63 +215.1%
10Northwestern Polytechnical UniversityChina 53.513.3%7.6×37 +130.5%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Air Traffic Management and Optimization, country by country

Is Air Traffic Management and Optimization research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 41% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Air Traffic Management and Optimization.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Air Traffic Management and Optimization as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.018% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%Air Traffic Management and Optimization0.023% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Air Traffic Management and Optimization over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Air Traffic Management and Optimization10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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