NORTIM: Norwegian model for aircraft noise calculation

The aircraft noise calculation program NORTIM (NORwegian Topography Integrated Model) is developed by SINTEF for the Norwegian Defense Construction Service and AVINOR (former Norwegian Air Traffic and Airport Management). NORTIM is the program used for calculation of aircraft noise in the vicinity of most Norwegian airports. 

The program enables the user to import traffic journal data, process the data, construct flight tracks, define multiple scenarios with a given traffic scaling, etc. The calculation results are presented as contours on a map. NORTIM can also do point calculations of the aircraft noise outside all buildings near the airport.

NORTIM consists of four main parts:

• The user interface, which is tightly integrated with Microsoft Word to enable the user to easily include maps, graphs and tables in a report (see figures at the right). The user interface has tools for processing data in tables, constructing flight tracks, create maps, import results, etc.
• The calculation kernel, which is originally based on the "Integrated Noise Model" (INM version 4, USA). Since then, the kernel has been significantly improved, with regard to both calculation speed and accuracy; NORTIM takes topography into account and may also include the screening effect of buildings.
• The project database, which contains all input data, maps and results for one project.
• The master database, which contains the aircraft noise data and standard flight profiles. This database is common to all projects.

SINTEF has during 2001 and 2002 further improved the calculation accuracy. Based on measurements at Oslo Airport Gardermoen during 2001 , a new model for lateral attenuation was incorporated into the calculation kernel. The master database was also updated with new noise data sets for the most common jet aircraft.

SINTEF has also developed two special versions of NORTIM; GMTIM and REGTIM.

GMTIM automatically collects traffic data, flight tracks and flight profiles from the flight track and surveillance system at Gardermoen, and process the data with relatively little user input.

REGTIM is designed to do simple calculations of aircraft noise in the vicinity of regional airports in Norway. The user interface is simplified and allows the user to adjust a predefined data set.

Both GMTIM and REGTIM uses the same calculation kernel and master database as NORTIM.

Contact:
Idar Ludvig Nilsen Granøien, Tel.: +47 73 59 27 27,   or
Rolf Tore Randeberg, Tel.: +47 73 59 26 68