Demonstration of a Convective Weather Product into the Flight Deck

In June of 2014, a real time demonstration to uplink a satellite-based convective weather product into the flight deck of transoceanic aircraft was begun with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Lufthansa German Airlines (LGA), and Basic Commerce & Industries, Inc. (BCI) as partners. The initial display of the product was in the LGA Mission Support facility where the product was monitored for performance prior to uplink into the flight deck. Uplink into the flight deck of a Lufthansa Airbus 380 was accomplished in July 2014 and the product shown on an installed display.

In this paper, we will describe the overall project, including the convective weather product, the engineering design of product creation and dissemination, communication requirements for product service, and the product display. In flight product validation from an LGA pilot will be provided for a few flights. A preliminary assessment of product effectiveness will be discussed.