Implementing the Aviation Summer Weather Dashboard: A decision support tool for extended traffic planning

A large portion of the efforts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Aviation Weather Testbed (AWT) are focused on the integration of weather and air traffic information to provide enhanced support for the air traffic planning. As part of this effort, the Aviation Summer Weather Dashboard (ASWD) was developed to initially support the two National Aviation Meteorologists (NAMs) stationed at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Traffic Control System Command Center.

Primarily focused on aiding extended traffic planning out to days 2-3, the ASWD employs a convective forecast produced by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Short Range Ensemble Forecast (SREF). The calibrated probability of thunderstorms and a height of convective cloud top forecast are sampled near airport terminals and along jetways in the northeastern United States. These data are displayed using a color-coded stoplight” scheme to show increased forecast probability of convective activity impacting air traffic, with red denoting the highest likelihoods. Hourly information is shown for the first 15 forecast hours, after which the temporal frequency is every three hours.

In collaboration with the FAA's Collaborative Decision Making-Weather Evaluation Team (CDM-WET), several improvements and modifications have already been identified for possible implementation after the 2013 convective season. Climatology and verification data are presented and illustrate challenges related to translating probabilistic data sampled in air-traffic space into a color-coded dashboard display, suggesting further work is required to ensure the derived forecast provides appropriate information for decision support. Several data display enhancements have been identified to clarify the interpretation of the information presented in the dashboard. Additionally, there is potential to expand the area the ASWD covers to more than the northeast United States.