AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA PACIFIC | EUROPE | MIDDLE EAST ARINC’s Role in MDCRS MDCRS Management Team September 7, 2006

AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA PACIFIC | EUROPE | MIDDLE EAST Page 2 Agenda History of MDCRS and where we are today Airline Participation Overview of MDCRS Data Processing and Communications

AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA PACIFIC | EUROPE | MIDDLE EAST Page 3 History of MDCRS In 1986 Dr. John McCarthy recommended an automated aircraft reporting system for collecting weather observations. ARINC fielded MDCRS in March 1991 –FAA funded development of MDCRS server and operation of the service –3 Participating airlines; DAL, NWA, UAL AAL, FedEx, and UPS participation added. Government initiated reimbursement for partial costs incurred by airlines in SWA joined in Most recent contract between FAA and ARINC effective June 2006 with option periods through March 2011.

AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA PACIFIC | EUROPE | MIDDLE EAST Page 4 Airline Participation Today’s numbers –7 participating airlines AAL, DAL, FedEx, NWS, SWA, UAL, UPS –1500 aircraft report Winds and Temps –60 UAL a/c report Turbulence (EDR) –25 UPS 757s report Water Vapor –100,000 observations per day (3M per month) –Participating airlines collectively receive about $30K/month from the Government as cost reimbursement

AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA PACIFIC | EUROPE | MIDDLE EAST Page 5 Airline Participation – 1462 aircraft (June 2006) American – 265 –737, 757, 767, 777 Delta – 375 –737, 757, 767, 777, MD88, MD90 Fed Ex – 194 –A300, A320, MD10, MD11 Northwest – 41 –757 United – 413 –A319, A320, 737, 757, 767, 747 UPS – 124 –757, 767, MD11 SWA – 50 –737

AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA PACIFIC | EUROPE | MIDDLE EAST Page 6 Airline Participation – No. of Observations 3,291,986 Observations from reporting aircraft – June 2006 AirlineNo. of A/CNo. of Obs. American265403,428 Delta375511,917 Fed Ex194437,665 Northwest4184,252 United413795,634 UPS124683,147 Southwest50375,943

AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA PACIFIC | EUROPE | MIDDLE EAST Page 7 MDCRS Data Processing by ARINC

AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA PACIFIC | EUROPE | MIDDLE EAST Page 8 Content of Typical MDCRS Messages Header info contains Aircraft ID, Departure Station, Destination Station. 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.) Turbulence (when available) (4 or 5 char.) Icing (when available) (4 char.) Water Vapor Mixing Ratio (when available) (4 char.)

AFRICA | AMERICAS | ASIA PACIFIC | EUROPE | MIDDLE EAST Page 9 ARINC Processing Recognize ACARS message is a MDCRS message and route to MDCRS processor Decrypt, if necessary Remove header, extract raw wx observation data Tag with airline and aircraft ID using codes supplied by NWS Validate format Convert data to BUFR format Batch BUFR messages and send to NWS approx every 15 min. Send ACARS messages in ASCII format to GSD-ESL.