The primary mechanism for mitigating weather impacts to aviation, as planned by the Weather Working Group is to provide a consistent, common operating picture to all users of weather information. An example of the need for this common operating picture is that currently between FAA and NWS legacy systems there are about 15 different thunderstorm products available to users. In the future, trajectory-based operations demand the incorporation of improved, common weather information in order to safely achieve the needed system capacity enhancement. As this is accomplished, weather becomes increasingly transparent to the users.

Three objectives are identified in order of importance: (1) Weather information integrated into air traffic management, airline operations, and cockpit decision support systems; (2) a single authorative source of weather information as a core underpinning of the common operating picture, using a network enabled data and forecast system; and (3) a vastly improved four-dimensional observation and forecast capability that addresses forecast uncertainty using probability information.

By reversing priorities from a pure focus on research to improve observations and forecasts, these priorities insure that users will obtain the necessary tools for decisions in the face of adverse weather. The stark reality that drives this work is that 70% of National Airspace System delays are weather-caused, 60% of these weather-related delays are un-necessary, and that every day is a weather day in the NAS.