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SAGE is a high fidelity computer model used to predict aircraft fuel burn and emissions for all commercial (civil) flights globally in a given year. The model can analyze scenarios from a single flight to airport, country, regional, and global levels. In addition, SAGE dynamically models aircraft performance, fuel burn and emissions, capacity and delay at airports, and forecasts of future scenarios.

A Policy and Regulatory Analysis Tool

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Office of Environment and Energy (AEE) developed this tool with support from the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Logistics Management Institute (LMI). Its purpose is to provide FAA, and indirectly the international aviation community, with a tool to evaluate the effects of various policy, technology, and operational scenarios on aircraft fuel use and emissions. Currently at Version 1.5, SAGE is not for use on a stand alone personal computer; it is an FAA government research tool, not for release to the public. However, results from the model have been made available to the international aviation community; and, FAA is committed to the continued development, support, and reporting of SAGE.

SAGE Inventory Data

SAGE Version 1.5 has been used to generate global inventories of fuel burn and emissions for years 2000 through 2004. These historical inventories were developed by modeling high-resolution gate-to-gate movements of all global commercial flights in each year. The inventory report files (listed below) present the data in various forms and also provide derivative metrics and comparative assessments.

Note that the inventory data presented represents condensed (e.g., aggregated) versions of the raw inventory outputs from SAGE, which range from inventories with tens of millions of records to those with approximately a billion records of detailed flight results for each modeled year.

As a formal disclaimer, any SAGE data, including those contained in this report, are made available to interested parties as is. FAA is not liable for any misunderstandings and misuses of the data. The user is solely responsible for any consequences arising from inappropriate application of the data.

• FAA-EE-2005-02, SAGE: Global Aviation Emissions Inventories 2000-2004 (PDF)
• FAA-EE-2005-02a, Appendix A: Processed Regional Inventories (PDF)
• FAA-EE-2005-02b, Appendix B: Processed Country Inventories (PDF)
• FAA-EE-2005-02c, Appendix C: Processed Aircraft-Engine Inventories (PDF)
• FAA-EE-2005-02d, Appendix D: Processed Modal Aircraft Inventories (PDF)

SAGE Documents

As part of SAGE development and reporting, a series of documents (listed below) provide information on the model’s:

• Methods and assumptions
• Validation
• Revision history

The information is provided within the context of using SAGE to develop global inventories of fuel burn and emissions.

• FAA-EE-2005-01, SAGE: Version 1.5 Technical Manual (PDF)
• FAA-EE-2005-03, SAGE: Validation Assessment, Model Assumptions and Uncertainties (PDF)
• FAA-EE-2005-04, SAGE: Version 1.5 System Revision History (PDF)