A collaborative forecast process and product for the volume of airspace within approximately 100 nautical mile radius of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was operationally demonstrated during the summer of 2007. This effort was motivated by the hypothesis that the volume of air traffic in and out of major airports could be increased during periods of convective activity if both collaborated forecast products and collaborated user decision making processes were put in place. As a result both of these two processes were tested:

1. Operational aviation meteorology forecast products available explicitly for the climb and descent phase of flight, valid for the 2 to 6 hour time period were produced. The National Weather Service (NWS) Center Weather Service Unit Meteorologist lead the effort and two additional meteorologists, one at the local NWS forecast office as well as one at the Northwest Airlines (NWA) System Operations Control facility collaborated.

2. Evaluation of air traffic flow options were discussed during planning telecoms when convection was forecasted to impact the Terminal RAdar CONtrol (TRACON) area. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Air Route Traffic Control Center representative lead the effort, two or three additional Air Traffic Managers (ATM), 1 or 2 FAA representatives from the FAA Tower and/or FAA TRACON as well as one ATM Flight Dispatcher at the Northwest Airlines (NWA) System Operations Control facility collaborated.

The bulk of the Operational Demo focused on the TRACON collaborative convective forecast product, process and results. This will be described in detail. The ATM process and results, dependant on successful completion of the former, will be described, but in less detail.