NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Space Weather Displays for the Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS)‏ Arnaud Dumont Nelson Hillyer Greg Thompson

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR ADDS Joint development effort (NCAR-RAL, NOAA-GSD)‏ FAA funding since 1998 Small “o” operational at AWC starting 10/1998 Big “O” operational at AWC starting 10/2003 Several awards –UCAR “Outstanding technical achievement” in 1999 –Government Technology Leadership award for FPT in 2000 –FAA commendation for HEMS in 2006

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR The Mission Applying innovation and technology to bring current atmospheric research to the public, while creating the internet’s best aviation weather resource. Provides a user-centered data service to the aviation community Provides a technology transfer vehicle for new products moving from experimental to operational Provides display and data service infrastructure to product development teams

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR The Systems Operational ADDS Experimental ADDS

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Meteorological Products NWS text products –METARs, TAFs, Airmets/Sigmets, PiReps –Decoded, geo-located, searchable NCEP/EMC gridded products –RUC/NAM wind, temperature, dewpoint, pressure –Multiple forecasts Experimental gridded products –Icing, Icing Severity, Turbulence, Convection, Ceiling, and Visibility –Analysis and forecasts Earth-observing products –Satellite –Radar

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Usage Volume

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR User Profiles Large audience from complete spectrum of user areas: All branches of DoD (with emphasis on the Air Force)‏ Every national and many regional commercial airlines Shipping/cargo carriers (FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.)‏ Aircraft manufacturers (Boeing, Cessna, Bell Heli)‏ General aviation of all experience levels including glider pilots and hot-air balloonists Helicopter emergency medical service operators Research Universities: Embry-Riddle, Univ. N. Dakota, Univ. Washington, etc. Private weather vendors

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Space Weather Transpolar flights – Projected to increase to 13,000 by 2010 – Subject to GPS errors – Experience HF radio blackouts – Increase exposure risk to flight crews NASA DEVELOP program – John Murray and Christopher Mertens – Goal of showing the utility of an operational product – Nelson Hillyer 3-week exchange in Boulder, CO Worked directly with the ADDS team Implemented a solid architecture

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurements (GAIM) GAIM model development – Robert W. Schunk – Utah State University – Total Electron Count (TEC) of electrons/m 2 – Global coverage at 15°longitude x 5°latitude – Ported to the Air Force Weather Agency in 2006 Sample dataset provided by AFWA – Runs every 15 minutes “specification” 24 hourly forecasts – NetCDF data format

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Architecture Data Providers ADDS Data Consumers Ingest NWSFAA NOAA NCAR MIT Text Database Gridded Data Files Dynamic Web Content Services Data Processing Software Display Apps Distribution Local Data Manager (LDM)‏ AirlinesGA pilotsMachine to Machine Text Data Server (XML,CSV,KML)‏ Gridded Data Server (MDV)‏ Web Server (GRIB)‏ Web Server (text, images)‏ Web Server (Java client apps)‏ CommercialOthersDOD

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Data Processing Ingest via LDM Register with DB Drive script initiates: –NetCDF re-variable –NCL grid resampling –NCAR Graphics image generation –Sun raster to PNG –NetCDF to MDV conversion Register images with DB

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Static Plots Polar Stereographic Contoured Updated every 15 min 24 hourly forecasts

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Flight Path Tool Zoom, Pan, Animate Overlay observations No polar projection No cross section

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Future Work Establish a reliable data source Identify critical thresholds Enable the product on Experimental ADDS Solicit feedback from the aviation community Model TEC through the troposphere Derive appropriate “hazard indicators” Disseminate data for use by other systems

NASA Program Review 11/18/08 © 2008 UCAR Thank You Questions?