The only source of real time weather radar information for en route air traffic controllers is the weather channel of the Air Route Surveillance Radar (ARSR). That is the case now and has been the case for decades. In 1999, with the installation of the Weather and Radar Processor (WARP), Stage 1, the Air Route Traffic Control Center's NEXRAD product delivery system, air traffic controllers will begin the transition to NEXRAD information. This transition will be accompanied by some fundamental changes in the way the air traffic controllers and their support team factor weather information into their routine activities and how they interact with the pilots and their support team on severe weather days. This paper will discuss how NEXRAD information is anticipated to change the operational concept for the five team players: air traffic controllers, traffic management specialists, Center Weather Service Unit meteorologists, pilots and the dispatchers in the airline operations center. An actual weather scenario will be used to show how important factors and concepts such as situational awareness, information parity, the separation of airplanes from hazardous weather and freedom of flight will change for the better or be enhanced, as the case may be
The 8th Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology