A Weather and Aviation Data Server for NextGen Applications

A weather and aviation data archive, which is coupled with a cataloging and searchable database, is being developed to support research in NextGen applications for simulations at the NASA Langley Research Center Air Traffic Operations Laboratory (ATOL).

The capabilities of this resource will enable a variety of other aviation and meteorological studies. The server being developed will allow for a researcher to search for a variety of weather elements with criteria that match a range of filtering attributes. These attributes include date, time, and a variety spatial filters ranging from the full U.S., to named regions (geographic and aviation), station locations, or within an arbitrary polygon.

Aircraft position data are used to support the development of a gridded aircraft density data set that is then composited with a number of operational datasets, such as the National Convective Weather Diagnostic (NCWD), Graphical Turbulence Guidance (GTG), Current Icing Potential (CIP) and Forecast Icing Potential (FIP), to identify areas where aviation hazards are collocated with aircraft within the National Air Space (NAS). The aircraft position data will also be utilized to develop metadata that will allow for a variety of other objective measures, such as the determination of when a change in runway orientation is implemented at a particular airport.

The elements that will be presented include: the server's archive of weather and aviation datasets, the dataset browse and exploration capabilities, query capabilities and novel applications of dataset combinations, and the underlying methodologies for the objective discrimination of the weather and aviation impacts.