Distribution of Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS) Products Using Web Technology

Recent accidents and the expanding role of the Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) program have highlighted the urgent need to provide the airlines and other aviation users with information from the FAA terminal weather information systems. In this paper, we discuss how the use of Internet / Web browser technology will be used to achieve widespread distribution of products from the Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS).

The ITWS is a capital investment of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide a full-automated, integrated terminal aviation weather information system that will improve the safety, efficiency, and capacity of major terminals. The ITWS acquires data from FAA and National Weather Service sensors as well as from aircraft in flight within the terminal area. Demonstration systems are being operated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL) Weather Sensing Group at four airport terminal areas: New York, NY, Orlando FL, Memphis, TN, and Dallas/Ft. Worth TX. Real-time graphical weather information from the prototype ITWS systems are relayed to primary users (airport towers, air traffic control, major airlines, etc) via a situation display (SD) that consists of a Sun workstation and a dedicated data line to the ITWS site. For users who do not have access to a fully operational SD, or who want additional flexibility for accessing the ITWS information, MIT/LL operates a demonstration server to provide enhanced SD images that can be viewed using COTS web browsers over the Internet and the Collaborative Decision Making Network (CDMnet).

With the upcoming deployment of the ITWS as an operational FAA system to 44 major airports, a priority for the FAA is the distribution of the ITWS information from the production systems to non-FAA users. Safety within the terminal area will be increased in hazardous weather situations if every aviation user could have access to up to date ITWS information. Distribution of this information via the Internet and the CDMnet could reduce data access costs, while at the same time providing access to a wide variety of users. This paper describes the evolution of the ITWS demonstration web site, including some recent significant enhancements, discusses the technical challenges with designing a strictly real-time web site, and presents some of the future developments that will be required to serve SD display product data and browser viewable images from the production ITWS over the Internet and CDMnet.