The 4-D Weather Data Cube: Data Services, standards and IT architecture

The 4-D Weather Data Cube is a critical part of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). Approximately, 70% of air traffic delays are attributable to weather impacting the American economy in excess of $40B annually. Of these delays, approximately two thirds could be prevented with greater access to improved weather information. The 4-D Weather Data Cube will provide better access to critical weather data to support automated decision making in air traffic management (ATM). It will provide seamless and timely access to environmental data critical to for all decision makers and aircraft operators.

The Information Technology (IT) architecture, data services and standards will be a critical component of the 4-D Weather Data Cube. In the last year, the NextGen team has made significant progress towards defining a joint IT architecture between the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). We have made extensive progress towards defining an extension of OGC web services that support the exchange of weather information critical to aviation (WXXM – Weather Data Exchange Model) as well as exploring the use of the Joint METOC Broker Language (JMBL).

This paper describes the joint architecture for building the 4-D Weather Data Cube, the data services and standards and the results of our recent IT prototype that demonstrated the exchange of weather data between the FAA and NOAA.