Currently the processes used to address convection avoidance in the US national airspace presents opportunities for increased efficiency. There is potential to significantly reduce the economic costs incurred and reduce even further the potential for turbulence encounters.
Although there is a great need for tailoring weather information for unique user requirements there also appears to be some duplication of efforts by the large number of both private and government weather forecasting organizations Leveraging of existing resources within government and private industry is now possible through collaboration supported by emerging technologies. Shared utilization of staff and automation through the use of web based communications & telecommunications can be implemented to reduce existing inefficiencies.
Although there are significant limitation to the current state of the science of Meteorology to forecast convection, interpretations of the existing available public and private produced convection forecasts are being done by the users and controllers of the U. S. airspace today. Therefore, it is reasonable to attempt to stretch the limits of the existing convective forecast products using user specified requirements as a guideline.
A Summer 1998 Thunderstorm Forecasting test was conducted. Joint goals of the government and private aviation representatives included: Utilizing user specified requirements; Leveraging resources through collaborative convective forecasting decision making. One of the Final Resultant goal was: Incremental increases in efficiency of the National Airspace during period of convection. Brief descriptions of the Operational Thunderstorm Forecast Test will be provided describing Commercial Aviation, FAA and NWS perspectives
The 8th Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology