Traffic Flow Impact (TFI) Tool
Established in 1963, the R&D 100 Awards is the only S&T (science and technology) awards competition that recognizes new commercial products, technologies, and materials for their technological significance that are available for sale or license. The R&D 100 Awards, celebrating the program's 60th Anniversary this year, has long been a benchmark of excellence for industry sectors as diverse as telecommunications, high-energy physics, software, manufacturing, and biotechnology. This 2022 R&D 100 winner is listed below, along with its respective category.
Category: Software/Services
Developers: MIT Lincoln Laboratory MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Co-Developers: Federal Aviation Administration
United States
Product Description:The Traffic Flow Impact (TFI) Tool provides guidance to air traffic control managers on potential airspace flow rate reductions on high-use air traffic routes during times of convective weather.
Developers: MIT Lincoln Laboratory MIT Lincoln Laboratory
Co-Developers: Federal Aviation Administration
United States
Product Description:The Traffic Flow Impact (TFI) Tool provides guidance to air traffic control managers on potential airspace flow rate reductions on high-use air traffic routes during times of convective weather.

This figure shows the Traffic Flow Impact display which depicts the forecasted reduction in air traffic flow through an area over central Pennsylvania designated ZNY001. The impact of convective weather on critical volumes of airspace can be expressed categorically as shown in the color-coded table at the bottom of the figure (red meaning high impact, yellow meaning medium impact, and green meaning low impact), and as a permeability profile that represents a percentage of a maximum clear-weather throughput for a given airspace region as shown in the top left corner.