ARINC’s Role in AMDAR

1. ARINC’s Role in AMDAR Meteorological Data Collection, Reporting System (MDCRS) and Water Vapor Sensing System (WVSS) Jeannine Hendricks Sr. Program Manager jh@arinc.com

2. Introduction to ARINC • ARINC has provided information and communications services for the airlines and others since 1929 • We operate one of the most flexible and sophisticated private networks in the world to ensure mission-critical communications for more than 700 transportation industry companies and government agencies, including: • Approximately 100 airlines worldwide • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Weather Service (NWS) • For the commercial aviation industry, we provide a global air/ground communications network with voice and data services for airline operations control and air traffic control • Headquarters in Annapolis, MD, with offices and facilities to serve customers in 140 countries • ARINC is in transition to be part of the Rockwell Collins group. The legal aspects are being worked out at this time and should be finalized by the of end of Oct 2013

3. Air-Ground Communications Services Virtual 100% assurance of message delivery

4. GLOBALink/VHF World Coverage

5. I-3 Classic Aero Coverage Map Perth Burum Swift 64, Aero I Coverage Aero H/H+ services are provided in the full footprint of the global beams This map depicts Inmarsat’s expectations of coverage, but does not represent a guarantee of service. The availability of service at the edge of coverage areas fluctuates depending on various conditions. SwiftBroadband coverage February 2009.

6. I-4 Classic Aero Coverage Map APK1 XXA AME1 XXH EUA1 XXF Paumalu Fucino I-4 Americas I-4 Asia Pacific This map depicts Inmarsat’s expectations of coverage, but does not represent a guarantee of service. The availability of service at the edge of coverage areas fluctuates depending on various conditions. SwiftBroadband coverage February 2009. I-4 EMEA

7. GLOBALink/HFDL Worldwide Coverage HF Ground Stations Alaska Bahrain Bolivia California Canary Islands Guam Hawaii Iceland Ireland New York New Zealand Panama Russia South Africa Thailand Legend HFDL ground station Areas of Primary coverage Areas of Secondary coverage

8. Typical Data Link Applications Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS)

9. History of MDCRS – the U.S. Implementation of AMDAR • In late 1980s the concept of an automated aircraft reporting system for collecting weather observations was developed • FAA and NWS funded implementation and operation of the Meteorological Data Collection and Reporting Service (MDCRS) • ARINC fielded MDCRS in 1991 • Seven Participating airlines; Delta/Northwest, United, American, FedEx, UPS, SWA and Alaska • ARINC has continually provided the service for the FAA and NWS • Future – Pacific region, Mexico and Latin America have expressed some interest and the ARINC team is actively pursuing these for integration into MDCRS (program infrastructure)

10. Importance of MDCRS • MDCRS is an important data source for all types of forecasting including aviation, marine, public sectors for watches and warnings • Data show temperature inversions that forecast ceiling and visibility at airports • Useful in forecasting wind gusts & low level wind shear in terminal areas • Provides a high spatial and temporal density of atmospheric observations at a very low cost per observation • Used to initialize Numerical Weather Prediction forecast models with high quality atmospheric observations • Benefits to the airlines – safety and fuel savings • Accurate wind forecasts enable efficient routing and fuel savings • Greater predictability of weather hazards to improve planning and increase safety • Improved forecasting of local conditions, freezing levels, icing, phases of precipitation, wind shear, potential for fog, and turbulence • More accurate forecasts of temperature, wind, clouds, precipitation, and storms MDCRS has become an extremely useful data source enabling a significantly better understanding of atmospheric conditions. (American Meteorological Society, Feb. 2003)

11. Content of Typical MDCRS Messages • ACARS Header info contains Aircraft ID, Departure Station, Destination Station (23 – 27 char.) • Time of Observation – Day, Hour, Minute (6 char.) • Latitude in Deg, Min, Tenths (6 char.) • Longitude in Deg, Min, Tenths (7 char.) • Pressure Altitude, feet (4 char.) • Wind Direction (3 char.) • Wind Speed (3 char.) • Static Air Temperature – degrees C (4 char.) • Roll Angle Flag (1 char.) • Phase of Flight (when available) (4 char.) • Water Vapor Mixing Ratio (when available) (4 char.) • Turbulence (when available) (4 or 5 char.) • Icing (when available) (4 char.)

12. 91 samples during a typical 2:15 flight Typical ARINC 620 Reporting Top of Climb (TOC) Top of Descent (TOD) Taxi Take-Off Departure En Route Approach Land Taxi 60 sec interval to ON 6 sec interval to 90 secs from OFF 20 sec interval to 510 secs to TOC 3 min. interval to TOD

13. 24 Hours of A/C GLOBALink Data from North America

14. 24 Hours of MDCRS Data from North America

15. 24 Hours of WVSS-II Data in the U.S. Network

16. Water Vapor Sensing System Reporting – (WVSS-II) • ARINC is currently providing WVSS-II service for National Weather Service (NOAA/NWS) • ARINC has been providing data for WVSS reporting since 2007 • Currently there are 112 Aircraft reporting WVSS-II data to NOAA/NWS for use in forecast operations and NWP models • UPS – 25 aircraft • Southwest Airlines – 87 aircraft • Data from WVSS-II is integrated with other meteorological data on-board the aircraft and transmitted to ARINC via GLOBALink Services • Currently we are reporting more than 50,000 observations per day, or about 2000 per month to NOAA/NWS

17. WVSS Observations and Soundings per Quarter

18. BUFR Messages AMDAR Data Processing by ARINC Airline Computer GLOBALink VHF AviNet NOAA/OAR RUC Dev NOAA/OAR ESRL/GSD NOAA/OAR AMDAR Page GMP AGSMP ARINC Packet Network NADIN II NOAA/NWS NCEP NOAA/NWS“Gateway” BUFR NOAA/NWS NOAAPORT Messages ACARS GTS Air Traffic Server • Remove message headers • Extract raw wx data, validate format • Remove airline and flight IDs • Convert to binary (BUFR) format

19. ARINC’s Optimization Solution • This solution allows selection or reporting aircraft based on their time of departure or arrival at specific airports • Reporting from other aircraft could be turned off to reduce the required communications bandwidth • Currently the Met Office in UK is using the ARINC Optimization Solution in their E-AMDAR implementation • The implementation of optimization is still on the roadmap by NOAA/NWS, however current budgets are playing a critical role in that decision to implement

20. Summary Points • Previous and ongoing Observing System Experiment (OSE) by NOAA/ NWS show AMDAR and WVSS to be among the top contributors to NWP model performance • This verifies the very high Benefit provided by AMDAR and WVSS • AMDAR and WVSS have a very low Cost per Sounding • AMDAR and WVSS high benefit with low cost provides Extreme Value • To National Meteorological and Hydrological Services • To Airlines and the Aviation community • Expanded WVSS-II implementations as part of AMDAR will dramatically enhance global observations and NWP model performance • Real-time Optimization can be used to target acquisition of specific data that provides the most value, increasing cost effectiveness • As demonstrated by the E-AMDAR team • More aircraft need to be added Internationally and shared amongst all Government agencies to achieve greater effectiveness • Especially in developing Regions/Nations

21. Summary Points (continued) • ARINC System Integration enables End-to-End implementations • Global Communications and Data Services • Software implementations such as Optimization for more cost effectiveness • First-level data quality verification with extremely high proficiency • Data formatting to global standards • Equipment integrations such as WVSS-II • ARINC still remains the only HF provider, which enables worldwide coverage • ARINC provided services are independent from the ACARS provider used by an airline • For example, UPS is a SITA customer for ACARS, but interconnects with ARINC for AMDAR and other applications • ARINC experience is derived from over 84 years of successful service to our Airline and Government partners • Direct service to over 100 global airlines • FAA, NOAA/NWS, CAA (JCAB, AeroThai, ADCC etc.) Met Offices

22. Future Next Steps • U.S. and International carriers have expressed interest to adding more aircraft to report into the MDCRS network, as well as WVSS • Provide improved coverage in west coast areas of the U.S. • Provide improved coverage in Mexico • Potential to expand to the entire North and South American Regions • Continue working with WMO towards implementation with Mexico • There still is synergy to moving this forward • Needs management focus due to retention/turnover • Continue to support expansion of AMDAR Internationally • European nations not currently participating actively • Asian nations not currently participating actively, such as India • African nations not currently participating actively • Continue evaluating STC’s and how to get them approved for other types of aircraft and get the best use of them both in the U.S. and Internationally

23. Thank You