Improved Provision of Aviation Weather Information: Evaluating Legacy Products for Transition and/or Retirement

As the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) continues to make progress in delivering many of the foundational capabilities promised by the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), a number of legacy aviation weather products and services are being evaluated for transition and/or retirement.

The first of these transitions, a joint-Agency effort to sunset the Area Forecast (FA), was recently completed and represents a significant accomplishment for both the FAA and the National Weather Service (NWS).

In October 2017, NWS ceased production of the legacy FA and transitioned to a suite of digital and graphical alternatives, collectively made available as the Graphical Forecasts for Aviation (GFA) Tool.

The GFA Tool can be accessed online, via: http://aviationweather.gov/gfa.

Like many other legacy aviation weather products, the textual FA was decades old with little change in format. Its retirement and transition to the GFA Tool has enabled the provision of graphical weather information of significantly finer spatial and temporal resolution.

The Agencies are now working to duplicate the success of the FA transition by undertaking a similar review of remaining legacy products. This presentation will illustrate a planned methodology for improving and/or safely retiring additional legacy aviation weather products, drawing on the success of the FA Transition.