Turbulence Remote Sensing Operational Demonstration System

In the summer of 2005, an operational demonstration of the newly-developed NCAR Turbulence Detection Algorithm (NTDA) was performed by NCAR's Research Applications Laboratory under direction and funding from the FAA's Aviation Weather Research Program. Real-time NEXRAD Level II data from 16 radars over the upper Midwest were obtained from the National Weather Service over Internet 2 and ingested via Unidata's Local Data Manager (LDM). These data were processed by the NTDA, a fuzzy-logic algorithm that computes in-cloud estimates of eddy dissipation rate (EDR). These data were then combined to produce a three dimensional turbulence detection mosaic every 5 minutes. The mosaic was made available for viewing via an interactive Java web-based application. In addition, aircraft route and position information was ingested via the Aircraft Situation Display to Industry (ASDI) data stream and used along with the turbulence mosaic to produce text messages depicting turbulence over a 60 nm by 120 nm region ahead of selected aircraft. These customized messages were in turn uplinked via ARINC to ACARS printers in the targeted United Airlines aircraft cockpits. A website was created to allow pilots to review the series of uplinked messages and provide feedback via a questionnaire and comment form. This paper describes the design and outlines some of the challenges encountered in the implementation of the Turbulence Remote Sensing operational demonstration system.