Visualisation of Spatio-Temporal Information on the Flight Deck

Knowing where one is, as well as where one is going, has always been of interest to human beings. This question is not only of philosophical nature, but safety-critical when travelling. Thus, the overarching research question of this dissertation is to discover how spatio-temporal information should ideally be presented to pilots to enhance their situation awareness. Today's state of the art in computing, visualisation and interaction allows not only static 2D maps, but interactive 3D visualisations of space and time. Through a literature review, two user studies, and an analysis of real-world flight data, this dissertation presents both the results of scientific research and applied industry outcomes when pilots use state-of-the-art commercial weather visualisations. The findings of the systematic literature survey demonstrate the challenge cartographers face when required to design a map for aviators: The users desire as much information as possible, however, research findings consistently show that it is necessary to find a balance between information quantity and quality. More information does not lead to a higher situation awareness, but the relevant facts must be presented in a salient manner. A user study comparing interactive 2D and 3D weather visualisations for commercial pilots on a conventional system (computer screen, mouse and keyboard interaction) showed the best results, as measured by situation awareness and usability, for conventional, 2D maps. When testing an extended reality support for orientation and navigation for general aviation pilots, results were highly dependent on where one was located: In areas with numerous geographic landmarks, the benefits of the extended reality tool was minimal, whereas there was an improved location awareness in areas with few salient external features. Flying accuracy showed no difference between with or without the extended reality support. An explorative data analysis of commercial flight trajectories revealed one metric with observable changes: The number of times pilots descent during cruise increased with the introduction of a commercial aviation weather application. The distance to hazardous weather remained unchanged, with the median closest distance to convective precipitation an order of magnitude larger than what pilots request on long-haul flights to safely avoid these weather phenomena. The key contributions of this dissertation are as follows: (1) Summarizing the state of current research on maps on the flight deck; (2) Presenting design recommendations for aviation weather visualisations; (3) Discovering what aspect of flight trajectories changed after an airline had introduced a commercial weather application for its pilots; and (4) Testing an extended reality application for general aviation pilots, with outcomes indicating what features need more refined technical development before they can be put into operational use.

Grantor dc:publisher

ETH Zurich

Year dc:date

2026

Author dc:creator

• Sarbach, Adrian; id_orcid0009-0001-6248-6451

Contributors dc:contributor

• Raubal, Martin; id_orcid0009-0001-6248-6451
• Neininger , Bruno
• Fabrikant , Sara Irina
• Schöning , Johannes

• Aviation; Literature review; Weather map; Trajectory analysis; Augmented reality
• Astronomy, cartography
• Engineering & allied operations

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Licence

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-c-000797043

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/797043