aviation weather center focused on the safety of the flying public
DESCRIPTION
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 - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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