Progress in Weather Information Management and Dissemination

1. Progress in Weather Information Management and Dissemination 2004 Friends/Partners in Aviation Weather Forum Las Vegas, Nevada October 13, 2004 Gus Martzaklis NASA John H. Glenn Research at Lewis Field

2. NASA Goals and Objectives • Goal: Develop enabling technologies to reduce weather-related accident causal factors by 50% and turbulence-related injuries by 50% by the year 2007. • Objectives: • Improve pilots’ ability to obtain, understand and use weather information for safer decision-making. • Develop means to expand automated airborne in-situ weather reporting for altitudes below 25,000 ft. for improved forecasts. • Develop en-route turbulence hazard prediction, warning and reporting technologies for reducing injuries to passengers and crew. • Develop air/ground communications concepts and technologies for improved weather informationdissemination. • Develop methods to use advanced satellite weather-observation capabilities to improve aviation weather products.

3. Wx Info Dissemination Vision & NASA’s Contribution • Developments-to-Date (1st Generation): • Independent, unique aviation Wx info-only datalinks • Primarily focused on General Aviation (safety & utility benefit driven) • End-to-end, stovepiped, packaged Wx delivery & presentation systems • Minimal use of on-board decision-aids (‘canned’ Wx products) • WSI In-Flight, XM Wx, Bendix-King FISDL are some examples • Emerging Near to Mid-Term Solutions (2nd Generation): • Adapt datalinks to carry Wx information with other aviation data • General Aviation as well as Commercial Transport • UAT, Iridium, 1090ES, VDLM3, Inmarsat Swift 64 SatCom… examples • Long Term Solution (3rd Generation): • ‘Design in’ Wx information requirements into future aviation information systems to enable JPDO Network Enabled Ops and FAA’s SWIM

4. FY04 Key Progress & FY05 Plans • TAMDAR: • With partners, completed preparations (sensor development, cert, partnerships..) to conduct FY05 Great Lakes Fleet Evaluation of TAMDAR System with Mesaba Airlines using Iridium system • With partners, completed preparations for NASA UAT-based FY05 air-air flight experiments using NASA Learjets • Weather-to-the Cockpit Uplink: Plans in place for NASA flight experiments in FY05 integrating 2nd-generation cockpit presentation, interface and datalink research • On-board NASA 757 or UAL 747 using Inmarsat Swift 64 (demonstrating oceanic application) • NASA C-206 for General Aviation using WSI SatCom

5. FY04 Key Progress & FY05 Plans • Turbulence Airborne Hazard Prediction & Reporting: • With partners, completed preparations (partnerships, cert, algorithm and radar development) and initiated FY04/05 In-Service Evaluations of Turbulence Radar and Turbulence Auto-PIREP System with Delta Airlines using ACARS • Plans in place for NASA VDLM3 and 1090ES-based FY05 air-air EPIREP flight experiments using NASA 757 and Learjets • Summary: • FY05, as the final year of NASA’s Weather Accident Prevention Project, represents technology validation activities of advanced technologies developed during FY00-04 • NASA’s involvement has been instrumental in the implementation of 1st and 2nd generation Wx datalink systems

6. Regional/General Aviation En-Route Ground Station • JHU-APL: Partnership for Engineering, Integration, Validation • Air to Air • Atmospheric Sensor Data • Aircraft Telemetry • Garmin (avionics radio) 40,000 AGL • Air to Ground • Atmospheric Sensor Data • Aircraft Telemetry • Ground to Air • Graphical Wx Products • Textual Wx Products 5,000 AGL • WSI (weather products) • FAA SF21 • FAA Tech Ctr • MITRE • Sensis Weather Information Service TAMDAR Data Collection FAA – UAT Ground Stations & Network • Equipment/Partnering

7. Commercial Transport En-Route Ground Station Air to Air (1090ES) Turbulence Alerts/Warnings • Sensis / Honeywell 40,000 AGL 5,000 AGL • Rockwell-Collins (avionics) • Air to Ground • (VDLM3) • Aircraft Systems • Wx Requests • Sensor Data • Aircraft Telemetry • Ground to Air • (VDLM3) • Graphical Turbulence • Weather Products • Universal Weather (Wx products) Weather Information Service • FAA (Nexcom) • MITRE Turbulence Data Collection VDLM3 Ground Stations & Network • Equipment/Partnering

8. International/Oceanic En-Route • Air to Air • (Air-Ground-Air Routing) • Turbulence Alerts/Warnings • EMS (avionics) • Air to Ground • Aircraft Systems • Sensor Data • Aircraft Telemetry • Ground to Air • Ground Systems • Reports & Forecasts • Alerts / Warnings National/Commercial Weather Providers • SITA AOC, Dispatch, ATC Inmarsat Swift 64 & Network Service Provider • Equipment/Partnering