713 Collaborative Digital Aviation Grid Process at the Aviation Weather Testbed and Operations Proving Ground

Tuesday, 24 January 2017
Austin Cross, NOAA/NWS/NCEP/Aviation Weather Center, Kansas City, MO; and B. R. J. Schwedler, S. A. Lack, J. W. Scheck, K. J. Runk, C. M. Gravelle, D. W. Snyder, K. L. Crandall, and C. S. Uskievich

Handout (31.5 MB)

The 2016 Aviation Weather Testbed (AWT) Summer Experiment was held at the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) in Kansas City, MO cooperatively with the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, NJ over two weeks from 15 August 2016 until 26 August 2016.  One of the major themes of this experiment is demonstrating a fully collaborated, real-time effort of Digital Aviation Services (DAS) involving AWC forecasters providing first guess cloud and visibility fields to several simulated Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) established in the Operations Proving Ground (OPG). This was an demonstration of a fully integrated field structure concept in which AWC forecasters use the Graphical Forecast Editor within AWIPS in kind with WFOs, examining best practices and rules of engagement, to support a collaborative forecast process and produce grids for the National Digital Forecast Database. The resultant grids provide an aviation weather common operating picture and can support consistent aviation forecast products across the NWS including the Terminal Area Forecast (TAF) and AIRMETs.  These resultant grids were evaluated by potential end-users, such as traffic planners and pilots, facilitated by the Aviation Weather Demonstration and Evaluation services at the FAA Technical Center.  A summary of the results of the collaborated digital aviation grids and the usefulness of these grids will be presented herein.  

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