Aviation News

New Aviation Weather Data System Debuts on Internet

WASHINGTON -- The National Weather Service’s Aviation Weather Center and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today launched an experimental digital data program that will ultimately increase safety by giving aviation users more accurate weather forecasts.

The new Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS), available via the Internet, will contain weather observations and forecasts important to the aviation community. The data, generated by sophisticated numerical models, can be used by pilots and the private meteorological industry to generate customized aviation products.

“This data set is the first step for putting critical weather information related to aviation in the hands of the users, individual pilots, the airlines, flight service stations and National Weather Service meteorologists, and allowing them to generate products to fit their different needs and applications,” said David Rodenhuis, director of the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) in Kansas City, Mo. “Part of the weather service and FAA mission is to improve aviation weather services.”

“We are improving the forecasting of weather elements such as icing, turbulence, and convection that impact aviation safety,” added David Sankey, team leader for the FAA’s Aviation Weather Research program. “This new data set is a first step in providing more accurate and accessible weather observations, such as gridded in-flight icing forecasts.”

The ADDS, developed through a partnership of the National Weather Service and the FAA, represents an important milestone in realizing the vision of providing aviation-specific weather products. The agencies expect that the availability of the ADDS will spur the creation of software that will let aviation users manipulate the data for their precise requirements.

“Eventually, we want users to be able to have in their hands a forecast that says, ‘You’ll encounter these specific conditions at this particular location at this specific time,’ if that’s what they want,” Sankey said.

The two agencies cooperate on numerous research programs designed to apply weather sciences and improve the services provided to aviation users. For example, an important component of the partnership is the Experiment Forecast Facility, supported by the FAA and located at the AWC, where new weather products are tested in an operational mode.

The AWC, one of the nine National Centers for Environmental Prediction, was formerly a part of the Weather Service’s National Severe Storms Forecast Center. As a new national center dedicated to aviation, Rodenhuis said, the AWC will work even more closely with the FAA to improve forecasting tools to benefit the aviation industry and private pilots.

“The AWC provides weather data and forecasts for use by commercial weather services and U.S. airlines to help them operate more safely and more efficiently,” Rodenhuis said. “We also provide benefits to private pilots and we are taking steps to make weather data more easily available to them. We apply our services through the FAA to the aviation industry to protect the thousands of people who fly each year in commercial and private aircraft.”

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	Did You Know?
	Work-related aircraft crashes are the leading cause of occupational fatality in Alaska With civilian pilots having the highest fatality rate (410/100,000/year). Between 1990 and 1998, aviation accidents in Alaska caused 100 occupational pilot deaths. Most fatalities resulted from Controlled Flight Into Terrain - (CFIT) poor visibility & pilot error were big factors.