Much of the research at RAP results in the development of specialized weather displays for a wide range of users. Through developing an understanding of the intended use of weather information in the decision process, displays are presented to the user that are intuitive and require minimal interpretation.

Presentation of weather information to aviation decision makers, i.e., pilots airline dispatchers, air traffic controllers, airport operators, has been a mainstay of RAP's activity since its inception. Below are several examples of these displays.

• Pilots and airline dispatchers need high-quality weather information for flight planning and monitoring during flight. The Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS), developed by NCAR and NOAA's Forecast Systems Laboratory, runs at the NWS Aviation Weather Center in Kansas City to provide one of the best web-based weather briefing sites on the Internet.

• Airline deicing crews and airport operators maintaining runways have special needs for weather decision support during snow storms. The FAA-supported technology developed by NCAR called Weather Support for Deicing Decision Making (WSDDM) provides the ideal tool.
  

• WTWS Geographic Situation Display: Designers developed the WTWS products to enhance the safety, capacity and efficiency of operations at Chek Lap Kok by automatically providing pilots with concise windshear and turbulence alerts. The system was also designed to provide air traffic managers and supervisors with information to aid effective decision-making and to present high-resolution, real-time meteorological data and forecast guidance to forecasters.

  The WTWS integrates data from various sensors and sources, including anemometers, Terminal Doppler weather radar, Doppler wind profilers, numerical weather prediction models and an array of global weather observations.   Indirectly, it receives data from the ICAO world area forecast system (WAFS) and the World   Meteorological Organization (WMO) global telecommunications system.
  
  

• The primary WTWS product suite includes detection of terrain-induced turbulence, terrain-induced windshear, convective microburst and windshear, gust fronts, precipitation intensity and storm motion. It also predicts terrain-induced turbulence and airport surface wind and guides mesoscale numerical weather prediction guidance. The graphical and text formats are easily interpreted by pilots, controllers, air traffic managers and aviation forecasters. The alerts use commonly accepted aeronautical navigation terminology.

  The WTWS graphic display delivers hazardous weather warning information and other meteorological products. It shows the horizontal profile of various hazardous weather areas, vertical wind profiles near the approach and departure corridors, and textual warning messages. Video replay of the recent product history is possible. The meteorological situation  is displayed in several user-selectable ranges and levels of detail. Critical products and important situation changes are highlighted visually on the display and/or announced by audible signals.
  
  

• The alphanumeric alarm display is designed to alert controllers to time-critical weather hazards and to provide textual warnings for communication to pilots. Alerts are given as microburst, windshear or turbulence, with associated intensity and location. For windshear and microburst alerts, intensity is given as headwind "loss" or "gain" in knots; for turbulence, intensity is specified as "moderate" or "severe".  The intensity is the maximum expected along the alert corridor and the alert location is where the event is first expected to be encountered. Event locations for windshear alerts are given as one, two or three nautical miles on approach or departure - or on the runway. Event locations for turbulence alerts are identified as departure or approach.