Enhancing collaboration between AWC and Core partners

There is a growing emphasis on improved collaboration and communication regarding anticipated aviation hazards to ensure a uniform aviation forecast across the National Weather Service (NWS). Participants at the AWT Spring Experiment are navigating what this collaboration may look like as a new forecast desk, National Aviation Operations Center (NAOC), within the operations at AWC.

Throughout the week, participants are simulating some of the tasks that may be done by an AWC lead forecaster at the NAOC desk and providing feedback based on the utility of the collaboration for their own operations. One major task for the forecasters is to develop and conduct a mock national collaboration call targeted for internal NWS aviation forecasters to ensure we are drawing the same picture regarding weather impacts to the NAS. Utilizing a new “briefing tool” on the testbed website, our participants collected the information they thought would be most useful for our CWSU partners and presented a mock call. Participants discussed the timing of these calls and how they might affect our partners differently from mornings on the east coast in the swing of things to the west coast still waking up.

AWC lead forecaster Joey Welsh working on creating a collaboration call briefing package

Participants are also exploring how AWC might create a decision support graphic depicting the “Key Aviation Message” of the day. This graphic is aimed towards providing general aviation pilots a targeted picture of major impacts within the NAS. While exploring different tools to create a graphic, the participants spent time honing in on what they considered the most major impact and how to relay this information to the GA community.

AWT Spring Experiment 2024 is Ready to Welcome Guests

Tomorrow starts the first day of the 2024 AWT Spring Experiment. This year the AWT is running two different “mini” experiments, one in the spring and one in the summer, in order to separate the different areas of focus and really hone in on each focal point. This spring, the AWT is welcoming meteorologists from various Center Weather Service Units and Forecast Offices, Global Systems Lab (GSL), Alaska Aviation Weather Unit (AAWU)/Alaska Region, Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), Southwest Airlines, and the FAA Weather Division to assist in assessing products and offer valuable insights and expertise.

GTG data available on the testbed webpage with an example G-AIRMET overlaid

This spring the participants will have two main areas of focus: evaluating the Rapid Refresh Forecast System while creating experimental G-AIRMETs on the testbed website, and providing insight on how AWC can enhance their collaboration to core partners by investigating the viability of a National Aviation Operations Center (NAOC) desk deployed within operations at AWC.

AWC Forecaster providing weather information for aviation partners

AWT Takes Over FPAW

Stakeholders from across the aviation community are in Kansas City this week for the Spring FPAW (Friends and Partners of Aviation Weather) meeting. Today, AWT integrated with FPAW to leverage knowledge and thoughts from users and producers of aviation weather information. The primary focus today was evaluating user interpretation of probabilistic aviation information. Through online polling and discussion, users were able to provide insite on aviation probabilistic products.

AWT presents at FPAW

This morning, we started with an overview of the winter weather dashboard; which is an operational product both on aviationweather.gov and experimental on our beta website. FPAW participants appreciated the demonstration of the dashboard and being able to see plume and model trend data. They also expressed interest in more information on the impact thresholds on the dashboard.

After lunch, FPAW broke into groups to discuss non-deterministic methods for communicating aviation hazards. Utilizing some of the probabalistic desk graphics the testbed participants have been working on during the week, we got a lot of feedback on how the data are presented and how different weather phenonemon impact the general aviation community. Some of the "hot topics" from the participants were focused on how detailed the graphics are or should be, spatial coverage of the polygons, and how pilots versus meteorologists perceive data.

AWT Organizer, Jack Lind, leading discussion on probabilistic graphics

The day wrapped up with a look at the outlooks graphics from last years 2022 AWT Summer Experiment. Good discussion on the time scale of the outlooks, the busyness of a map with all aviation weather impacts, and how adding text to the graphic would enhance an outlook helped AWT hone in on some of the things the general aviation community is looking for in an outlook graphic.

2023 AWT Spring Experiment in full swing

The AWT is hosting meteorologists from across the country for our spring experiment! This week, participants from the Meteorological Developement Lab (MDL), Global Systems Lab (GSL), FAA Aviation Weather Demenstration and Evaluation (AWDE), Alaska Aviation Weather Unit (AAWU)/Alaska Region, Honolulu Forecast Office (HFO)/Pacific Region, and various Center Weather Service Units and Forecast Offices are here to help evaluate products and provide their insite and expertise.

Participants diagramming workflows for Hazard Services

There are three areas of focus this year: evaluating the 3-dimensional cloud forecasts from the RRFS, creation and discussion of prototype probabalistic graphics and how to present information to the general aviaiton community, and developing and evaluating workflows for Hazard Services for aviation.

Using various resources to create probabilistic forecasts

A Look at Developing Outlooks for General Aviation

One of the major themes, or desks, of this year's experiment is looking at the potential for creating Outlook Graphics for Days 1, 2, and 3 for AWC's General Aviation (GA) customers. Current AWC operational products do not go out beyond Day1, leaving an information gap (Fig.1) for those that are looking to plan for flights in the coming days. AWC has continuously received feedback from their pilot partners that they would like to have an easy to interpret, quick glance graphic that gives them an idea of what hazards to expect in the coming days.

Fig1. Current aviation weather forecast gap at the Aviation Weather Center for aviation hazards.

Experiment participants were tasked with developing Outlook Graphics that would be valid 12z-12z the following day and depict prolonged, impactful hazards which could include turbulence, IFR, icing, precipitation, smoke, and thunderstorms. The design would be similar to the current National Forecast Charts (Fig2) developed by the Weather Prediction Center, and maintain consistency with existing NWS products (ie. WPC, NHC, NDFD).  Participants used an interactive drawing GUI on the Testbed Website that allowed them to overlay fronts, modify the background map, and draw various polygons for each forecasted hazard.

Fig2. An example of the Weather Prediction Center's National Forecast Chart for Day1.

While ultimately user input will be critical for determining the utility of the Outlook graphics, participants were asked to fucus on things like the design, what guidance to use, what hazards were most impactful and should be included, and the overall workload that would be associated with creating such a graphic. It was clear from day one of the experiment that everyone brought different perspectives and ideas to the table, leading to an active and fun desk throughout the week.

Fig3. An example of one of the Outlook Graphics created during the experiment.

Throughout the week all participants agreed that determining the severity and impact of the graphics for the GA community will be the top priority before moving forward with operationalizing the product. Participants also indicated that a more detailed summary of the impacts with location and timing associated with them would be beneficial for Day1 for both GA fliers and fellow meteorologists. Other ideas that were brought up were the potential for multiple outlook 'tabs' for the various user types (GA, Low Altitude (LA), and National Air Space (NAS) planning), or even breaking up Day 1 into two separate Outlook graphics (morning and afternoon) to account for hazards that are only impactful during those periods.

In the end, the AWT staff recieved an abundance of perspective and ideas for moving the Outlook Graphic further toward operations. The next step will be to get the graphic in front of users to really assess the intuitiveness and utility of the product for its intended users.

AWT Summer Experiment Beta Website

Along with the evolution of the Traffic Flow Management Convective Forecast and creation of new prototype multi-day outlook graphics, the participants are evaluating the Aviation Weather Center's new experimental website, beta.aviationweather.gov. AWC developers are in the testbed this week to help answer questions, and learn more about how the website is used in operations. 

The AWC Testbed page has been updated to the new look and feel of the beta website and participants are testing new products and ideas using the website this week! Prototype outlook graphics and convection forecasts are drawn on the website and saved as part of the evaluations.

Participants using the new testbed page to create prototype multi-day outlooks

Welcome to the AWT 2022 Summer Experiment!

The 2022 AWT Summer Experiment kicked off on Tuesday with a full house of collaborators and stakeholders from multiple entities of the aviation weather enterprise. Participants include developers from NOAA’s Earth System Research Lab (ESRL), and NCEP’s Environmental Modeling Center (EMC); meteorologists from AWC, Center Weather Service Units (CWSUs) and Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs) from across the country, and Southwest Airlines; as well as researchers from the Weather Prediction Center (WPC) and the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL).

After a few years of primarily virtual testbed activities, the Aviation Weather Testbed and AWC are excited to welcome participants back to Kansas City for this collaborative evaluation.

Participants discussing the Warn-on-Forecast System (WoFS)

There are two major themes this year: evolution of the Traffic Flow Management Convective Forecast and creation of new prototype multi-day outlook graphics. Participants will be utilizing experimental model guidance and tools this weeks, exploring ways to improve existing products and potentially create new ones.

Reviewing medium range guidance for the production of multi-day outlooks