An Overview of the 2024 Aviation Weather Testbed Experiments

An integral part of the Research to Operations (R2O) process at the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) is the annual experiment held within the Aviation Weather Testbed (AWT). This past year, the AWT hosted two “mini” experiments, which brought together forecasters, developers and stakeholders over a total of six days to work together to evaluate new products and forecasting techniques aimed at improving safety in the National Airspace System (NAS). Themes across both the spring and summer experiments focused on evaluating the performance of the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS) and workflows associated with products aimed at the General Aviation (GA) user.

During the spring experiment, RRFS guidance for multiple aviation hazards including icing severity, turbulence, and low ceilings and visibility were assessed for accuracy and utility. In the summer, the focus switched to evaluating RRFS convective products and their utility for developing AWC products. In addition, AWC partnered with the National Severe Science Laboratory (NSSL) to evaluate the utility of the Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS) for Aviation planning and convective forecasting. This evaluation continued throughout the month of July with a focus on CWSU operations within the “golden triangle” of the NAS.

The second theme that stretched across both experiments was the testing and evaluation of workflows associated with producing products aimed at better supporting planning for the GA community. Participants explored how AWC might create a decision support graphic depicting the “Key Aviation Message” of the day aimed at GA and/or low altitude fliers, and how that message may be used across multiple NWS offices. Additionally, participants expanded on work previously done for creating Outlook Graphics that display specific aviation hazards for GA pilots beyond Day 1 across CONUS.

This presentation will discuss both experiments and highlight some of the results.