Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) Weather Evaluation Team (WET) convective weather forecast process in support of traffic flow management

The purpose of this manuscript is to provide an update on the CDM WET activity called Operational Bridging, which is being demonstrated and tested during the 2011 convective weather season.

Operational Bridging can be thought of as a set of weather forecasting processes, meteorologist/ATM decision maker engagement protocols, and communications tools. A goal of Operational Bridging is to accelerate the transition of aviation weather constraint forecasts from the low/medium confidence (probabilistic) category to the high confidence (near-deterministic) category and to perform this function in sufficient time to enable ATM decision makers to devise and refine TFM plans to make their binary “Yes/No” decisions for Traffic Management Initiatives in a timely manner. Key characteristics of the meteorologist performing Operational Bridging are the merging of a solid understanding of National Airspace System (NAS) components and processes; full awareness of critical atmospheric conditions for ATM decision makers; and utilization of advanced forecasting techniques and communications skills. The WET considers Operational Bridging as an evolution of the Collaborative Convective Forecast Product (CCFP), a key CDM product developed more than 10 years ago which provides a consistent and collaborative forecast of convection so that Air Traffic Managers may develop a strategic traffic flow plan for the NAS. Operational Bridging exploits new, automated convective forecasts and supports Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) core principles such as the Single Authoritative Source (SAS) of weather information, while maintaining the familiar and effective Human-In-The-Loop concept with regard to the convective weather forecast process. Individual meteorology offices have successfully implemented the above goal and demonstrated the above characteristic for years.

A system wide implementation of Operational Bridging over the NAS is a new process. The details of what the WET is developing and demonstrating in 2011 are provided here, including initial feedback and plans to obtain and analyze future feedback from Air Traffic Managers on the demonstration. Additionally, follow-on plans for the WET and Operational Bridging are described.