N. Technology Transfer Activities

[Background]
[Taiwan – Advanced Operational Aviation Weather System (AOAWS)]
[ADDS] [NCWF]

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1. Background

High quality science applied to societal problems is at the heart of the RAP mission.

Decision-makers in a number of important disciplines need improved information and tools as an integrator of research and technology across disciplines and organizations in order to transfer new capability into the domain of practical application for those who have to make weather-sensitive decisions in government agencies and the private sector.

Transfer of technology for aviation safety decisions continues to be the main emphasis of RAP. Improved capability for the automated forecasting of aircraft icing, thunderstorms, snowfall affecting airport ground operations, turbulence, ceiling and visibility, and oceanic weather continues to be our major activity. Significant technology transfer has already taken place, including improved education and training, transfer of advanced products to operational agencies, and delivery of turn-key systems.

Although aviation is our primary focus area, major transfer of technology is also taking place to DoD, in the form of turn-key forecasting systems and algorithms. In addition, systems for public weather forecasting have been transferred to the private sector. Applications to road weather information are being developed for transfer beginning next year.

This year three systems are highlighted in our technology transfer section:

2. Taiwan – Advanced Operational Aviation Weather System (AOAWS)

The Advanced Operational Aviation Weather System (AOAWS) is a 6-year aviation weather system modernization program (1997-2003), sponsored by the Taiwan Civil Aeronautics Administration. The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) commissioned NCAR to design, build and implement the AOAWS in Taiwan as a technology transfer program between the U.S. Government and Taiwan. NCAR/RAP is leading the program and other participants include NCAR/MMM, and the Institute for Information Industry, a local Taiwan not-for-profit information technology organization.

 The AOAWS consists of  advanced meteorological  sensor systems (at airports and  within the Taiwan airspace), a  communications infrastructure,  a product generation  component, a system server  component that distributes  products to users, and several  product displays that present  the advanced aviation weather  information to end users.   AOAWS system components  are fully integrated to form an  operational, turnkey system that  serves the aviation community  flying within or through Taiwan  airspace. 
                                               Figure N1.

The AOAWS will provide the CAA, the airlines and the flying public with state-of-the-art aviation weather technology for: 1) hazardous weather phenomena that affect aviation operations (e.g., in-flight icing, clear air turbulence, windshear, and thunderstorms), 2) weather phenomena that affect airspace capacity and safety at the major hub airports, and 3) weather phenomena that affect overall efficiency of aviation operations.  The AOAWS is a complex system utilizing several advanced weather sensing subsystems, integrated communications, advanced software developed by NCAR/RAP, advanced numerical weather forecast models developed by NCAR/MMM, and NCAR/RAP developed advanced interactive and web based display technology. System displays are located at the Taipei Aeronautical Meteorological Center, several Weather Forecast Stations and Flight Information Service facilities at Taiwan airports, and at the Taipei Area Control Center. In FY2001, the system was expanded, products enhanced, and for the first time, available to the broad aviation community for review.  The system will undergo final acceptance in FY2002.

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3. ADDS

The Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS), jointed developed by NCAR-RAP, NOAA-FSL, and the NCEP-Aviation Weather Center (AWC) disseminates weather products to the aviation community via the web (http://adds.awc-kc.noaa.gov). ADDS is a single source for all aviation weather needs with methods to retreive raw observation and forecast data, simple and quick loading graphics, and increased interaction with data using Java.  Besides standard National Weather Service data, ADDS also displays the products developed under the FAA Aviation Weather Research program which include an icing diagnosis (IIDA), turbulence detection and forecast (ITFA), and a convection diagnosis plus forecast (NCWF).

Prior to 2001, ADDS obtained the experimental IIDA, ITFA, and NCWF products from the NCAR-RAP web server.  Each of these products is slowly transitioning to full 'operational' status with 24-hour/365-days per year support from AWC personnel on their hardware.  For each product, this entails transfer of code and algorithms from NCAR-RAP to AWC.  Each product must also be in formats required by NWS which are primarily GRIB and BUFR.  NCAR-RAP provided the code to handle a format conversion from a RAP format known as MDV (Meteorological Data Volume) to GRIB for use by NCWF (and easily extended to the IIDA product).  NCWF was translated to GRIB format and the resulting file was checked by AWC and other NCEP personnel who aided the process of shrinking the file size (via the addition of a "bit map").  Upon a few iterations, the NCWF GRIB file output needed for wide distribution by NCEP was accomplished through a collaborative effort between NCAR-RAP and AWC.  The result is a rapid path from the experimental status to fully operational product for NCWF.  Likewise, the collaborative tech transfer process is currently underway for the IIDA product and expected to become operational in early 2002.

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4. NCWF

The National Convective Weather Forecast (NCWF) algorithm was successfully transferred and approved by the FAA-NWS AWTT board as an official operational product this year. This technology transfer process has been on-going since 1999 when the NCWF code was first implemented and run at the Aviation Weather Center (AWC) in Kansas City. 

The NCWF product provides current convective hazards and 1 hr extrapolation forecast of thunderstorm hazard locations. The hazard detection field and forecasts update every 5 min. The NCWF target users are airline dispatch, general aviation and FAA traffic management units. The NCWF product is available on the WWW via Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS).  The diagnostic analysis combines WSR-88D national radar and echo top mosaics (provided by NOAA with mosaics created and distributed by UNISYS and cloud to ground lightning provided by Global Atmospherics Inc).  Extrapolation forecasts are determined by applying a stratiform-convective partitioner and elliptical filter to the hazard detection field. These filters eliminate stratiform return and small-scale perishable features. One-hour forecasts are based on the Thunderstorm Identification Tracking and Nowcasting (TITAN) algorithm.

In addition to implementing and testing the algorithms in real-time, the technology transfer process involved a good deal of effort by N. Rehak, G. Cunning, D. Meganhardt, and C. Mueller to write extensive documentation and training manuals, implement and test code at the AWC, add various features based on user input and train users.  B. Brown and J. Mahoney (from the Forecast Systems Laboratory) were involved in several statistical evaluations of the product. Usability studies were conducted by the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center. The AWC, with input from N. Rehak and G. Cunning, integrated the software into their operational system. Finally, a good deal of work was required by the FAA Aviation Weather Research Program (AWRP) to attend numerous meetings and help set policy for the NCWF products.