Southwest Airlines AMDAR Participation and Benefits

Rick CurtisChief Meteorologist

rick.curtis@wnco.com

SWA/AirTran Cities

SWA/AirTran Cities - International

SWA/AirTran Aircraft

Type Number Seats

717-200 88 117737-300 128 137737-500 20 122737-700 424 137/143737-800 34 175

Total 694

SWA/AirTran Facts and Figures• In April 2012, the AirTran 737-700 fleet began transitioning to

Southwest.

• 3500+ daily flights from 97 airports

• 606 Boeing 737 aircraft (300’s, 500’s, 700’s, 800’s)

• 88 Boeing 717 aircrafts (200’s)

• Southwest/AirTran consumed 1.9 billion gallons of jet fuel in 2012

• Average flight length is 694 miles

– Shortest: 148 miles (AUS-HOU)

– Longest: 2,329 miles (BWI-LAX)

9/6/13

Reporting Aircraft

• Wind/Temperature - 70• Water Vapor – 87 – plus wind/temperature • Turbulence – EDR – 85+ expected

Reporting Rates

6 sec intervals to

90 secs from OFF

20 sec intervals to 510 secs to

TOC

3 min. intervals to TOD

60 sec intervals to ON

24 Hours of SWA Reports82,000 + observations

24 Hours of SWA Water Vapor Reports48,000 + observations

Sounding

Why Participate• Improves forecasts – external and internal.

– Improves both terminal and en route forecasts.– Better forecasts result in more efficient operations.

• Strengthens partnership with NWS.– Integrated into forecast models.– Used by local forecast offices.– Supplement radiosondes.

• Integrate real-time turbulence information into operations to improve safety.– Plans include:

• Operational usage within Dispatch• “Smart alarming” to the cockpit.• Integration with other weather information made available to flight crews.

Where do you start?

• Obtain Executive level sponsorship.• Identify key individuals within Maintenance, Engineering,

Operations, and Legal to assist with program.• Negotiate and execute legal agreements.• Modify avionics software to database and report.• Activate aircraft reporting.• Establish ACMS software tracking.• Communicate to Dispatchers and Pilots implementation

details.

What additional effort is needed with Water Vapor reporting?

• Requires a part time project manager.• Provide input into the STC process – installation and

removal.• Write installation and maintenance procedures.• Create installation schedules for targeted aircraft.• Develop and implement processes for routine

maintenance.

Why “do” Water Vapor?

• Very little additional bandwidth required to downlink data.• Carrier has not been responsible for obtaining the STC – just

provide the consulting support.• Installed during “heavy checks” so no significant impact to

operations.• Water vapor measurements are essential to the forecasting

process.• Greatly fills in “gaps” between 00Z and 12Z radiosondes.

Turbulence

• SWA has worked over a series of years with NCAR for equation development.

• Integrate into avionics software. (cost)• Install on aircraft and track software revisions.• Test, test, and re-test to gain acceptance from all sides.• Integrate into displays to consolidate information.• Implement data into operational decision making.

Lessons Learned

• Problem with water vapor hose installations.• Inventory tracking – multiple installation sites.• Amount of acceptable inventory.• Software upgrades overwrite reporting capabilities.• Competing company ACMS resource priorities.• Older ACMS could not accommodate data load of EDR

equations.

SWA Benefits

• Assists with internal forecasting efforts for fog, thunderstorm development, precipitation type forecasting.

• Provides a good source of information for turbulence and other weather related internal research activities.

• Offers a positive Public Relations effort demonstrating public-private partnerships and environmental focus.

• Costs involved with program are essentially covered.• Beginning to explore the employment of this data for more

precise fuel planning activities.

Thanks very much!