Cecilia A. Miner, Aviation Services Branch; Office of Climate, Water, and Weather Services, NOAA National Weather Service

Steve Abelman, Science Plans Branch, Office of Science and Technology, NOAA National Weather Service

James Stobie, Director, Aviation Weather Programs, ENSCO, Inc.

Much thought and planning have resulted in an end-state picture of a 4-dimensional (3 spatial dimensions plus time) weather data cube existing in a net-enabled environment and consisting of high-resolution, rapidly updated digital data and information. A first step toward that end state is a bridge between current and future capabilities that demonstrates partner cooperation and accounts for systems in use or expected to be in use. Such a bridge is envisioned through demonstration of a 4-D weather data cube Initial Operational Capability (IOC) for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) in 2013.

Participating partners include, but are not limited to, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Academia, and Industry. The goal at IOC is to have an operational 4-D cube of environmental observational and forecast data and aviation impact variables for convection, icing, turbulence, ceiling and visibility that is accessible through a net-enabled architecture and used in NextGen decision making. This paper describes the plan for reaching the IOC goal, including discussion of demonstrations leading up to IOC.