1. Friends & Partners of Aviation Weather
Dr. Taumi Daniels
NASA Langley Research Center
November 1-3, 2016

2. Outline
NASA collaborations with FAA, NOAA, academia, and industry partners
Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE )
Aviation Safety Program (AvSP )
Aviation Operations and Safety (AOSP 2011-present)

3. AirVenture 1994
Pre-AGATE, NASA outreach to GA community

4. AGATE
NASA, FAA, Universities, Industry goal to revitalize GA
Create Small Airplane Transportation System
1996 Atlanta Olympics used as testbed
Six technical areas including integrated cockpit systems
1999 Demo of AGATE equipped Bonanza

5. 1999-2006 AvSP WxAP Weather Accident Project had three components
WinComm – communicate the weather
TAMDAR – collect better weather data
AWIN – display weather information + Turbulence

6. Oceanic Convective Nowcasting Demonstration
Pilot Access Terminal
Oceanic Convective Nowcasting Demonstration
Stowed in Canister
High-Resolution OCND Weather Product

7. GA Cockpit Display of Weather Information
National NEXRAD Weather Product
Multi-Function Display Installation in
General Aviation Cockpit
Icing Probability Weather Product

8. FAA Capstone Avionics
2000 FAA Capstone Partnership

9. 2000 Prototype Bendix-King handheld Weather Display
Part of the AWIN project
2000 Prototype Bendix-King handheld Weather Display

10. 2001 United Airlines WINN In-Service Evaluation
2000 WINN Project NASA Boeing B757
Boeing and United were corporate research partners for many NASA projects.

11. 2001 NASA Usability Evaluation
Initial recommendations defined for future
AWIN display systems’ software and hardware
StratoCheetah
Flight Manager III
CT-1000
FliteVue 640
Nav-2000
Polaris GPS 990
Software packages
Jeppesen’s FliteMap
Echo Flight’s EchoMap
Input devices
Bezel buttons Touch pad
Alphanumeric keyboard
Arrow keys Mouse keys
Touch screen
During Summer 2000, AWIN Operator Support performed hierarchical task analyses and began conducting usability investigations with five display systems:
Northstar’s CT-1000
Datatest’s FliteVue 640
J. P. Instrument’s Nav-2000
Stenbock & Everson’s Polaris GPS 990
Echo Flight’s StratoCheetah Flight Manager III
Using these display systems, two software packages (i.e., Jeppesen’s FliteMap and Echo Flight’s EchoMap) and several types of input devices (i.e., bezel buttons, touch pad, alphanumeric keyboard, arrow keys, “mouse” keys, and touch screens) were assessed in a laboratory setting
Strengths and weaknesses associated with five COTS aviation information display systems were identified
Initial recommendations for the design of future AWIN display systems’ software and hardware were defined; for example:
Number of minutes and/or seconds since weather data were complied should be displayed as a “time-stamp”
Searchable list of nearest airports, VORs, etc. with distances and bearings from aircraft’s current position should be available
Bezel buttons having distinctive shapes and textures will minimize head-down time and support one-handed operation during flight
Automatic and manual display brightness controls should be provided
NASA Technical Memorandum is being written to document research results and design recommendations
More in-depth usability investigations involving representative samples of end users are currently being planned

12. 2002 WARP Display NASA Cessna C-206H

13. 2003 AirVenture FAA Outreach
FAA partners during the WxAP years

14. 2003 AirVenture
Principals of the TAMDAR project

15. 2004 TAMDAR equipped Mesaba Airlines Saab 340

17. 2005

18. Aviation Safety Program 2007-2011
Reduced emphasis on flight deck
Single sensor – multiple hazard
NRA and SBIR funded research
Some examples:
Icing Remote Sensing (Ground Based RADAR, LIDAR, Ceilometer Fusion)
On-board Near IR LIDAR Development (Air Data System)
Near IR Imaging LIDAR Development (Image through Fog/Haze)
Dual Polarized Array RADAR (Hydrometeor discrimination and classification)
Limited Funding, reduced emphasis on sensor development compared to previous Aviation Safety Program
New emphasis on single sensor, multiple hazard

19. Aviation Safety 2007-2011 Sensor NRA examples, cont.
Engine & Airframe Icing Characterization and Simulation
Narrow Beam Scanning Radiometer (On-board Icing Detection)
Forward Looking Interferometer (Turbulence, Volcanic Ash, Wind Shear, Wake Turbulence, RVR, Icing)

20. Aviation Safety 2007-2011 Sensor NRA examples, cont.
Doppler LIDAR for Wake Vortex Detection (Fiber Laser Coherent LIDAR)
Multi-frequency RADAR Development (Airborne Icing remote sensing)
Hazard and Integrity Monitoring (Detect and assess external and internal threats)

21. Aviation Operations and Safety (AOSP) 2011-Present
Emphasis on increasing capacity and efficiency for NextGen
Three main thrusts: Global Aviation Operations, System Wide Safety Assurance, and Autonomous Aircraft
Weather related efforts are all NRA and SBIR funded research with universities and companies