4.14 Developing New Methods for Aviation Weather Forecast Production

Monday, 10 January 2000: 4:30 PM
Frederick J. Foss, NOAA/NWS/AWC, Kansas City, MO; and D. R. Frank, J. H. Henderson, and D. R. Rodenhuis

Historically, weather products are produced by a single forecaster. Although the evolution of technologies has provided forecasters with a vast array of graphical tools for analysis, products themselves have largely been generated as single alphanumeric bulletins albeit using word processor technology. Graphic products have been hand produced by forecasters

However, the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) has been investigating and testing ways in which to use available resources to generate products collaboratively.

Several production problems, which have as a basis the inefficiencies of past production methods, have been addressed within the AWC product suite over the past year. This paper will summarize three problems and the solutions developed to solve production inefficiencies through changes in and use of recent technologies:

As a part of the World Area Forecast System, the AWC was faced with producing additional global products (SIGWX graphics) to meet the U.S. portion of ICAO commitments. This challenge required AWC to apply additional personnel resources within the organization which could be used for collaborative production of the individual products by more than one forecaster.

The second problem arose because of redirection of the single forecaster that produced the low level SIGWX graphic. The solution to that problem was to develop software capability that would allow three forecasters to produce the low level graphic in collaboration. By adding the available time of those forecasters on any given shift, sufficient time could thereby be made available for the required production.

Finally, the airlines and FAA asked the AWC to be the focus for a Collaborative Convective Forecast Product for use in strategic routing and scheduling processes. This would require the melding of up to 25 government and airline meteorology forecasts into one cohesive product. The solution to this problem was found by employing enhanced existing graphics generation software and developing a unique Internet Chat Room capabilities.

While the basic resources are the same, creative use of those resources is beginning to revolutionize AWC's production capabilities. The expectation is that more consistent products of high quality as well as additional products can be generated collaboratively with the same workforce to meet users needs.

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