Evolution of Digital Aviation Services at NWS Milwaukee and Chicago

The National Weather Service (NWS) issues terminal aerodrome forecasts (TAFs) for 665 airports out of approximately 19,164 public and private airfields; therefore, 96.5% of U.S. public and private airfields do not receive dedicated NWS forecasts. NWS Digital Aviation Services (DAS) provide aviation guidance not currently available with conventional TAFs because unlike point-based TAFs, DAS essentially gives TAF information at any location.

In 2004, the NWS began experimenting with gridded ceiling height forecasts in order to provide aviation guidance to a wider range of customers. By 2010, several NWS offices expanded the effort to include forecast visibility grids and were able to create and issue TAFs directly from the gridded forecast database. Taking advantage of improved aviation-related guidance, NWS Milwaukee developed a technique to populate ceiling height, visibility, and non-convective low level wind shear by using a weighted blend of short-term, high resolution models. This approach, combined with parameters already embedded in the forecast process, ensures consistency between TAFs and the public forecast by sharing a common database. This presentation will provide an overview of the evolution of DAS and show how DAS benefits a variety of users and forecasters while meeting and exceeding verification goals.