Paper Being Presented as J3.7

Aviation Weather Hazard products required by the FAA and provided by the National Weather Service are known as AIRMETs and SIGMETs. AIRMET and SIGMET formats remained virtually unchanged from the teletype era to the present. The disadvantages of the teletype-text format are well known and include problems such as overstating the hazard over a six hour period, time resolution information is stated within the text and not graphically, and they are written in hard to understand contractions in order to save time and space over 100 wpm teletype circuits. Plotting AIRMETs on visual displays requires specialized software which decodes only the location of the AIRMET and does not display movement, evolution, or dissipation of the phenomenon within the AIRMET area. The first step of the federal government into graphical representation of official aviation hazard information will take place in CY2007. The graphical AIRMET will be issued in object-oriented format in three hour increments for the succeeding six hours with additional graphic representation for the next nine and twelve hours. The product will be accompanied by a text AIRMET product written in traditional teletype language.