Current WMO AMDAR Programme Operation Dean Lockett – Scientific Officer, WMO

Content What is AMDAR - Recap AMDAR Current Status - Recap How AMDAR operates Roles & responsibilities of partners More information & assistance

2. What is amdar - Recap

2. What is AMDAR AMDAR is: An automated aircraft-based observing system Component of WIGOS and WMO GOS PPP - Operated by WMO Member NMHSs with partner national airlines Operated based on meteorological (WMO) requirements for provision of data A system that: provides meteorological data in near-real-time on the WMO GTS Predominantly uses existing aircraft sensors and communications

2. What is AMDAR AMDAR onboard software (AOS) integrated into avionics: Data acquisition Data processing into messaging Interaction with communications via ACARS [Addition of water vapour sensor] Data relayed via DataLink (ARINC/SITA) Provision to NMHS for: Decode/re-encode (BUFR) Transmission on GTS Integration into national met. Applications Provision to data users National Quality monitoring International: WMO Data Quality Monitoring System Archival and access (WMO GDC)

WMO 2. AMDAR STatus - Recap 6

3. AMDAR (History &) Status Global ABO growing – but slowly 40 participating airlines 5,000+ AMDAR aircraft (10,000 all ABO) Over 850,000 observations per day

3. AMDAR Status – Participating Airlines (40) Air Canada Jazz British Airways Korean Air Shandong Airlines Aerolineas Argentinas Cathay Pacific LATAM Airlines SkyTraders Aeromexico China Southern Airlines Lufthansa Cargo South African Airways Air France Delta Air Lines Lufthansa CityLine Southwest Airlines Air New Zealand Dragon Airlines Lufthansa Germanwings Thomas Cook Air Nippon Airways EasyJet Airline Lufthansa Passage United Airlines Alaska Airlines Federal Express NAV Canada United Parcel Service (UPS) American Airlines Finnair Northwest Airlines   Asiana Airlines Japan Airlines Novair Scandinavia Austrian Airways JetConnect (Qantas) Qantas Airways Blue1 KLM Scandinavian Airlines

ABOP & AMDAR Status - Coverage WMO Graphic Courtesy of NOAA/ESRL/GSD Geographic Coverage Varies Good: USA, W. Euro, E. Asia, Australia, NZ, So. Africa Moderate: So. Am., Cent. Am., Canada Poor: E. Euro, No. & Cent. Africa, Mid-East, W. Asia, SE Asia, Cent. Asia, SW Pacific Islands Profile Temporal Distribution is uneven in those areas Excellent: > 24 per day Good: 8 – 24 per day Minimum: 1 – 7 per day Poor: <1 per day AMDAR Profiles of Winds and Temps only But not evenly spread in Time And mostly Winds & Temps only

WMO 3. How AMDAR operates 10

WIGOS Technical Report 2014-2 Chapters: What is AMDAR? Programme development Cost considerations Agreement/Contract considerations Design, implementation and operation Now incorporated in Guide to ABO, WMO No. 1200 – available WMO Online Library

AMDAR Program Development Process Requirements for Data Airlines Capabilities Assessment Contact with Airlines Plan, Design, Resource Assessment Agreement with Airlines Implement & Operate

Assessment of requirements for upper air data WMO Consider the requirements of upper air data users and application areas Consider national/regional/global aspects Assess requirements against current capabilities WMO Rolling Review of Requirements and tools provide assistance Want to determine: Can an AMDAR program fill gaps? Do applications require the data? Can an AMDAR program provide efficiency e.g. reduction of operational costs through reorganisation of the current upper-air observing system? Assumed as basic requirements: Vertical profiles at all major airports 8-24 profiles per day 10 hPa low trop., 50 hPa upper Enroute: 5 to 15 minutes Assessment of requirements for upper air data: WMO Rolling Review of Requirements: http://www.wmo-sat.info/oscar/observingrequirements 13

Assessment of national airlines capabilities and coverage WMO Potential of airlines to provide data and fill gaps. Assess airlines’ fleets and operational services. What combination of airlines and fleets could provide the necessary coverage? Does the airline have a strong internal maintenance division? Is the airline well established, stable and likely to continue operation? Much of the information can be obtained from the airlines’ websites: 14

Role/Relation to AMDAR Contact with Airlines WMO Position Role/Relation to AMDAR Airline CEO or other Executive Officer Understands the impact of weather on airline operations. May provide initial decision on airline involvement. Senior Pilot Representative of pilots to airline executive and influential in decision-making, will understand the impact of weather on airline operations. Flight Operations Manager Manager of all aspects of aircraft operations. Often the contact that liaises with NMHSs for weather services, will understand the impact of weather on airline operations. Avionics and Maintenance Engineering Will be involved in determining avionics capabilities and responsible for AMDAR software integration. 15

Building a business case for airline participation Benefits for the airline from providing AMDAR data: Improved weather forecasting skill and services to aviation by the NMHS Improved and more efficient flight operations by the airline Increased safety in flight operations Reduction in airline costs (e.g. reduced fuel consumption) Increased airline customer satisfaction Monitoring of onboard sensor performance Airline demonstrating commitment to reducing impact on the environment See: The Benefits of AMDAR to Meteorology and Aviation, WIGOS TR 2014-1 See: AMDAR Benefits to the Air Transport Industry, WIGOS TR 2016-01 See: WMO website WMO 16

Assessment of national airlines capabilities and coverage Which aircraft types are operated by the airline? Which destinations (domestic and international) does each aircraft type routinely fly to? What is the age of fleets? Do aircraft have ACARS communications? How many vertical profiles per day are likely to be obtained at each airport? Is software development required? No. of fleets? With airline complete avionics survey. 17

Plan, Design, Resource Assessment General design aspects: Equip domestic/long-haul fleets or both? International collaboration: data sharing Provision of AMDAR data outside national borders - long-haul fleets International AMDAR data availability? International collaboration infrastructure sharing (data processing , optimisation)

Plan, Design, Resource Assessment AMDAR Software Best implemented in modern larger commercial aircraft Current AMDAR relies on ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) Two WMO Standards for AMDAR: The AMDAR Onboard Software Functional Requirements Specification (AOSFRS) The ARINC620 AOS versions 1 through 6 defined in the AEEC 620-8 Data Link Ground Systems Standard and Interface Specification.

Plan, Design, Resource Assessment AMDAR Software Development of AOS (if required): Inhouse by airline (able to certify) 3rd party developer (e.g. Honeywell, Teledyne) Certification & Testing Operational flight testing: One or more aircraft for 1-2 weeks functionality; message format, response to uplink commands; configuration and data quality. Minimum: Compare temperature, wind and other meteorological data with co-located radiosonde or NWP data Validate spatial and temporal coordinates Roll out when fully tested and functional – during routine maint.

Plan, Design, Resource Assessment Data downlink & delivery Data transmitted over ACARS: 2-way communications based on VHF, HF and satellite systems Generally AMDAR configured to use VHF communications for cost reasons. Data Service Providers (DSPs): ARINC and SITA: Airlines usually have contracts with one or both DSPs Data reception either via airline (e.g. FTP) or direct (contract with DSP – require network connection)

Plan, Design, Resource Assessment Data processing by NMHS Establish system for reception, decoding and QC of data Provision to internal users Encoding into BUFR format and transmission on GTS General requirements are described in WMO Manual on Codes, WMO-No. 306 The binary format FM94 should be used for AMDAR data (Manual on Codes Volume 1.2 Binary Codes) Specific information and procedures for pre-processing for transmission on GTS will be in the Guide to ABO, Annex III

Plan, Design, Resource Assessment Data Quality Management QC Processing: Identify an errant AMDAR data stream Implement QC & consistency checks Remove the errant data from the distribution of data on the GTS (i.e. blacklisting an aircraft) Quality monitoring - Identify biases or systemic issues Quality monitoring methods: Review QC Processing NWP comparison Radiosonde comparison Inter-aircraft comparison International monitoring Issues relayed to airline More: WIGOS Technical Report 2014-2 WMO Lead Center for Monitoring of Aircraft Data is WMS Washington: http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/DPS/Monitoring-home/mon-index.htm Monitoring by NOAA/NWS National Centers for Numerical Weather Prediction (NCEP): http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/qap/

Plan, Design, Resource Assessment Configuration & Optimisation AOS has basic configurability for optimisation: Report only at particular airports Report only in geographical areas For larger fleets optimisation might be required: Consider for > 50 aircraft Data redundancy up to 70% Standard AOS will repond to uplink commands Consider participation in E-ADOS, ARINC

Plan, Design, Resource Assessment Data Use Plan for use of data: Assimilated in NWP Integrated into obs. databases Integrated into existing or new obs. visual display systems Vertical profiles displayed and used like radiosonde data Overlay AMDAR data with other observational data Stand-alone systems are available: NOAA/ESRL/GSD Aircraft Data Web http://amdar.noaa.gov/java (non-commercial but password protected) MeteoExpert System commercially available from the Institute of Radar Meteorology (IRAM), Russian Federation

Plan, Design, Resource Assessment Cost considerations AMDAR Programmes established with understanding: Mutually beneficial NMHS should pay for incremental est. & ongoing costs AMDAR is considered Basic Data WMO Res. 40 – Subject to ICAO Chicago Convention (e.g. airlines support 10% of basic data) A cost comparison between AMDAR program and radiosonde program is available in the WIGOS Technical Report 2014-1, Annex 5.

AMDAR Program Estimated Costs Item Implementation Cost Ongoing Cost (per annum) Potential Savings AMDAR Software < 100K USD nil/small (budget for 10% per annum) AOS already onboard AOS already available Functionality AOS Rollout < 1K USD per aircraft nil/small No charge by airline NMHS Data Processing System Comms (DSP): 5K USD Ground proc. infra.: 25K USD Ground proc. dev.: 50K USD 8K USD (10%) Service provision by DSP GTS Encoding software avail. Existing comms infrastructure. Off-shelf software. Regional collaboration. Optimisation System 1M USD (new dev.) 50K USD (exist., e.g. E-AMDAR) 100K USD Not required (< 50 aircraft) Existing system Data Communications < 0.07 USD per observation, e.g. 30 aircraft: 130K Lower comms cost AOS Config.

Contracts and agreements between NMHS/Airline Program requirements: The type and number of aircraft to be equipped with AMDAR software for reporting at an agreed frequency of reporting Costs payable to the airline by the NMHS The requirements for performance, fault correction, data quality, etc Obligations/requirements of both parties Terms and conditions Liabilities Data rights/ownership - As a minimum: application of Resolution 40 3rd party liabilities associated with operation of the program and AMDAR data use Ownership and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) The time period for operation of the program and “roll-over clause” Members should consult their own or hired legal counsel to assist WMO can assist, e.g by provision of contract template WMO 28

Roles & Responsibilities of Partners Activity NMHS Airline Meteorological requirements for data √ Establish contact for programme operation Assessment of airline capabilities Decision on AMDAR fleet activation AMDAR Software requirements AOS development certification AOS output testing Contract with DSP Programme Contract/Agreement Data delivery to NMHS Data reception, processing, QC, Monitoring Fault & issues reporting to airline Correction of onboard faults & issues Data transmission on GTS Data use

Coming Soon: Increased functionality of Lead and Monitoring Centre for ABO – daily monitoring and reporting; monitoring of data availability; online tools for monitoring Global Data Centre for Aircraft-Based Observations Operated by NOAA/MADIS Access to archived ABO/AMDAR data Display system Operational in 2018 Reorganisation under the WMO-IATA Collaboration on AMDAR…

Further information and support WMO WMO AMDAR Website http://www.wmo.int/amdar WMO AMDAR Resources Site References, Manuals, Standards and Guidelines and other guidance material 31

Thank you Merci