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

The 2017 Aviation Weather Testbed (AWT) Summer Experiment was held at the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) in Kansas City, MO cooperatively with the Operations Proving Ground and FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, NJ over two weeks from 7 August 2017 until 18 August 2017. 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, visibility, and low level wind shear fields to several simulated Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) established in the Operations Proving Ground (OPG), covering all elements of local aviation forecasting. 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. New grid methodology and grid elements to better unify WFO and MWO requirements were tested. End products 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.