AVIATION WEATHER CENTER

FOCUSED ON THE SAFETY OF THE FLYING PUBLIC

American Meteorological Society

January 14-18,2001

Albuquerque, New Mexico

AWC HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

1939 - Weather Bureau begins an expansion of aviation services

Area Forecast and 30 terminal forecasts issued from MKC

1944 - Flight Advisory Weather Service (FAWS) established

1978 - Convective SIGMET unit established within NSSFC

1982 - National Aviation Weather Advisory Unit (NAWAU)

1995 - Aviation Weather Center (AWC) established

MISSION STATEMENT

to apply the NWS mission...Protection of Life and Property

...to the National Airspace System (NAS)

for the Aviation Weather Center

ECONOMIC - Support the aviation industry with ADVANTAGE meteorological information to

economically utilize international airspace

INTERNATIONAL - Implement the agreements of the ICAO to COMMITMENTS support international aviation

SAFETY - Support the mission of the FAA to safely operate the NAS in an environment of weather hazards

CRITICAL ELEMENTS FOR AVIATION WEATHER FORECASTING

• Observations – Surface– Upper Air– PIREPS

• Numerical Forecasts – NCEP/EMC & NCO• Communications• Display

– National Focus– International Scale

• Product Generation

OPERATIONS BRANCH

Vision: Transition to future enroute forecasting activities and products.Current formats may be sustained until customers modernize

Current Forecaster Role

Future Forecaster RoleNear Term

• Graphic Products

• Enhanced Global SIGWX

Long Term

• Gridded Products

• Gridded TAF Guidance

Major Efforts• Training of 36 forecasters in advanced systems,

forecast generation techniques and new science

• Transition to Team Forecast Process

• Alphanumeric messages - turbulence, icing, convection, ceiling/visibility::SIGMETs, Convective SIGMETs, AIRMETs, Area Forecasts

• Graphic depiction of SIGWX - fronts, jets, convection, freezing levels, etc:Global High Level SIGWX forecasts, Low Level SIGWX forecasts

The Forecast Area at AWC

7X24 Surveillance

CCFP (Summer 98, 99, 2000)

Global Graphics

Area Forecasts

DOMESTIC PROGRAM

3 Forecasters issue Area Forecasts, AIRMETs, SIGMETs

Product List Domestic (CONUS)

Area Forecast

AIRMETs/SIGMETs: icing, turbulence, IFR, volcanic

ash

Convective SIGMETs - thunderstorms (1hr.)

New: CCFP - thunderstorms outlook (2/4/6 hrs)

Low Level SIGWX

Convective SIGMETS valid at 1600UTC 28 June

Traditional Operational Products (CONUS) - text and polygons

COLLABORATIVE CONVECTIVE FORECAST PRODUCT

EXAMPLE OF A LOW LEVEL SIGNIFICANT WX CHART

INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM

AWC IS ONE OF TWO WORLD AREA FORECAST CENTERS

International Responsibilities

CommunicationsAWC.……to…….CUSTOMER

AWCDELIVERY

END USER

Production

Fax Back

24 HOUR HELP Desk

877 Toll Free ServiceProduct

International Products

Tropical Desk

Global Graphics

High Level SigWx

IFFDP

Product List International

Gulf of Mexico Area Forecast for Helicopters

Caribbean Area Forecast for General Aviation

International SIGMETs for Seven Oceanic

Areas

High Level Significant Weather Charts for

Seven ICAO areas

FACA Responsibility Outlined in Red

MWO KKCI

MWO KKCI

MWO KKCI

MWO KKCI

MWO KKCI

MWO KKCI

MWO KKCI

LOW LEVEL GULF OPERATIONS

• 4,000 OPERATING PLATFORMS

• 30,000 PERSONNEL LIVING ON THE PLATFORMS

• 600 HELICOPTERS

• 1.7 MILLION FLIGHTS IN 1997

• 60,000 SQUARE MILES OF OPERATIONS

• $250K PER HOUR IN CREW COST

OFAGX

EXAMPLE OF HIGH LEVEL SIGNIFICANT WX CHART

THE PATH TO THE CUSTOMER

IS COMPLICATED

USERS: Military, General Aviation, Business, Commercial Pilots

NWS FAA Distributors

METARsSoundingsPIREPSACARSSatelliteRadar

AWC

NCEP

Private Sector Vendors & Airlines

FSSsAirline

Dispatchers

WFOs

Commercial Airline Pilots

Model Output

Alpha-Numeric

Observations

NOAAPORT

Voi

ce

Voi

ce

AC

AR

S

Voi

ceInte

rnet

Au

to-F

AX

ATCSCC

TRACON

Voice Briefing

NADIN

WarningsForecasts

ARTCCsCWSUs

TAFs

Alaska SPCGuam TPCHawaii

Product Distribution ADDS

by INTERNET

IMPROVING AND MERGING

AVIATION SUPPORT BRANCHEMBEDDED AVIATION TEST

BED

The Concept of an Aviation Testbed

AAWU

AWC

Cooperative Roles of Operations and Research

model output

NCEPobservations

Technology Transfer

Research

Products

21 CWSU’s

121 WFO’s

Operations

User Feedback

ClientsFAA Ops.Air TransportationRegionalBusinessGeneral Aviation

FSL NCAR Universities Lincoln Labs FAA Tech Center

Quality Assessment Team

Graphics DesignForecast A

ssessment

User E

valuation

RTV

S Sk

ill

TEGOProducts

TEST

EXPERIMENTAL

GUIDANCE

OPERATIONS

Internet/ADDS

CDMnet

The AWC Testbed is the ANVIL on which convective, turbulence, icing, ceiling visibility products are evaluated and prepared for operational applications