National Academies Press: OpenBook
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
×

Aviation Weather Services

A Call for Federal Leadership and Action

National Aviation Weather Services Committee

Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board

Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems

National Research Council

NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Washington, D.C.
1995

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
×

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the panel responsible for the report were chosen for their special competencies and with regard for appropriate balance.

This report has been reviewed by a group other than the authors according to procedures approved by a Report Review Committee consisting of members of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Harold Liebowitz is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Kenneth I. Shine is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy's purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bruce M. Alberts and Dr. Harold Liebowitz are chairman and vice-chairman, respectively, of the National Research Council.

This study was supported by the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Weather Service, and the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology under contract No. DTFA01-94-C-00042 and contract No. NA94AANWG0519.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 95-72006

International Standard Book Number 0-309-05380-3

Additional copies of this report are available from:
National Academy Press
2101 Constitution Avenue, NW Box 285 Washington, D.C. 20055 (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313 (in the Washington Metropolitan area)

Copyright 1995 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
×

Committee on National Aviation Weather Services

Albert J. Kaehn, Jr., Chairman, Commander,

U.S. Air Force Air Weather Service (retired)

John A. Dutton, Vice Chairman, Dean,

College of Earth & Mineral Sciences Pennsylvania State University

Grant Aufderhaar, Research and Development Panel Leader,

The Aerospace Corporation

William W. Hoover, Operations Panel Leader, Executive Vice President,

Air Transport Association (retired)

Sue Ann Bowling, Assistant Professor of Physics,

Geophysical Institute of Alaska, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

George P. Cressman, Director,

National Weather Service (retired)

Wilfred A. Jackson, Assistant Professor,

University of North Dakota

Carl R. Knable, Manager of Meteorology,

United Airlines

Peter R. Leavitt, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,

Weather Services Corporation

Robert J. Massey, Pilot,

Delta Airlines

Paul K. Rosenwald, Principal Engineer,

NYMA Corp.

Wayne R. Sand, Aviation Weather Consultant

David N. Schramm, Louis Block Professor in the Physical Sciences,

University of Chicago

Paul H. Smith, Senior Manager,

Air Traffic Services, National Business Aircraft Association

Tom Wardleigh, Chairman of the Board,

Alaska Aviation Safety Foundation

Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board Liaison

Robert R. Lynn, Sr. Vice President,

Research & Engineering, Bell Helicopter Textron (retired), Euless, Texas

Staff

Alan C. Angleman, Study Director

JoAnn C. Clayton, Director,

Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board

Ted W. Morrison, Project Assistant

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
×

Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board

Jack L. Kerrebrock, Chairman,

Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board,

R.C. Maclaurin Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

Steven Aftergood, Senior Research Analyst,

Federation of American Scientists, Washington, D.C.

Joseph P. Allen, President and Chief Executive Officer,

Space Industries International, Inc., Washington, D.C.

Guion S. Bluford, Jr., Vice President and General Manager of Engineering Services Division,

NYMA, Inc., Brook Park, Ohio

John K. Buckner, Vice President,

Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems (Retired), Fort Worth, Texas

Raymond S. Colladay, Vice President,

Business Development & Advanced Programs, Martin Marietta Astronautics, Denver, Colorado

Ruth M. Davis, President and Chief Executive Officer,

Pymatuning Group, Inc., Alexandria, Virginia

Steven D. Dorfman, President,

Hughes Telecommunications & Space Company, Hughes Electronics Corporation, Los Angeles, California

Donald C. Fraser, Director,

Center for Photonics Research, Boston University, Boston

John M. Hedgepeth, President,

Digisim Corporation, Santa Barbara, California

Takeo Kanade, Director,

The Robotics Institute, and

U. A. and Helen Whitaker Professor of Computer Science and Robotics,

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh

Bernard L. Koff, Executive Vice President,

Engineering and Technology, Pratt & Whitney, West Palm Beach, Florida

Donald J. Kutyna, Corporate Vice President,

Advanced Space Systems, Loral Corporation, Colorado Springs, Colorado

John M. Logsdon, Director,

Space Policy Institute, George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Robert R. Lynn, Sr. Vice President,

Research & Engineering, Bell Helicopter Textron (retired), Euless, Texas

Frank E. Marble, Richard L. Hayman and Dorothy M. Hayman Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Jet Propulsion,

California Institute of Technology, Pasadena

C. Julian May, President and Chief Operating Officer,

Tech/Ops International, Inc., Kennesaw, Georgia

Bradford W. Parkinson, Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics,

Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford

Alfred Schock, Director,

Energy System Department, Orbital Sciences Corporation, Germantown, Maryland

John D. Warner, President,

Information and Support Services, The Boeing Company, Seattle, Washington

Duane T. McRuer, Chairman,

Systems Technology, Inc., Manhattan Beach, California,

Ex Officio

Staff Director: JoAnn Clayton

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
×

Preface

Each time we see grim pictures of aircraft wreckage on a rain-drenched crash site, or scenes of tired holiday travelers stranded in snow-covered airports, we are reminded of the harsh impact that weather can have on the flying public. Accordingly, the federal government, state governments, commercial air carriers, and a wide variety of aviation and meteorological professional and industry associations strive to improve the ability of the national airspace system to accommodate adverse weather. As part of this effort and at the request of the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Research Council established the Committee on National Aviation Weather Services during May 1994. The committee examined institutional issues that affect (1) the provision of national aviation weather services and (2) related research and technology development efforts. The committee's task statement consisted of five specific elements:

  • Examine the roles played by various federal agencies in providing aviation weather services and in planning systems advances.
  • Examine the roles of these agencies in research and development for those services.
  • Assess the effectiveness of existing institutional arrangements to operate the current system and to plan and direct system improvements.
  • Identify possible unmet needs (i.e., potential services or capabilities that may "fall through the cracks").
  • Explore alternative approaches that might lead to improved weather monitoring and prediction for the aviation community ill both the Bear and long-term.

In order to assess the effectiveness of institutional arrangements, the committee first examined the adequacy of operational aviation weather services and related research. Although the committee did not focus on the effectiveness of individual aviation weather systems, it did determine how well current systems meet user needs. The committee then determined the extent to which the persistence of unmet needs and other problems could be attributed to shortcomings in institutional arrangements.

The committee concluded that user needs are well defined in earlier reports, federal documents, and interviews with knowledgeable members of the aviation and meteorological communities. In addition, the specific aviation weather functions that the Federal Aviation Administration, National Weather Service, Department of Defense, and other agencies currently provide seem to be well suited to their respective missions and capabilities. However, the committee did discover a lack of consensus and cooperation among many of the parties involved in providing and using aviation weather services. This fragmentation of responsibilities and resources leads to a significantly less-than-optimal use of available weather information. This report examines alternatives for responding to this situation. In particular, the report develops an approach whereby the federal government could provide stronger leadership to improve cooperation and coordination among aviation weather providers and users. The committee believes that stronger leadership is required for timely resolution of many key issues associated with aviation weather services and related research.1 As such, stronger leadership should be viewed as an essential element of the overall effort to improve aviation weather services.

Given its specific tasking, the committee confined its analysis to the relatively specialized field of aviation weather services. That analysis, however, raised broader issues regarding institutional effectiveness within the Federal Aviation Administration. Such issues go beyond the purview of this committee. If the Federal Aviation Administration conducts a more-comprehensive analysis of overall institutional effectiveness, the committee recognizes that this might have implications for the way in which the recommendations of this report are implemented.

The study committee met five times between July 1994 and April 1995, collecting information, assessing relevant issues, and generating appropriate recommen-

1  

See Appendix A for a complete list of the committee's findings and recommendations.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
×

dations.2 One of the goals of the committee was to ensure that its deliberations included a broad range of perspectives. To accomplish this goal, committee members conducted numerous additional meetings individually and in small groups in order to broaden the information collection effort and to discuss relevant issues with a wide variety of users and providers of aviation weather services. Committee members visited aviation weather and air traffic control facilities operated by the Federal Aviation Administration, National Weather Service, major air carriers, and private weather services in the vicinity of Washington, D.C.; Kansas City, Missouri; Boulder and Denver, Colorado; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; and Dallas, Texas; and in communities throughout the state of Alaska. As pan of these meetings, committee members discussed aviation weather operations, research, and development with a wide variety of individuals, including pilots, meteorologists, air traffic controllers, flight service specialists, and current and former government officials from the Federal Aviation Administration, National Weather Service, National Transportation Safety Board, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The committee wishes to thank all of these individuals, who are listed in Appendix C, for their contributions to the work of the committee. Finally, the committee wishes to express special appreciation and singular recognition to the study director, Alan Angleman, for his competence and diligence in every phase of its activities. His commitment to excellence leaves an indelible mark on this report. Alan was ably assisted by Ted Morrison in this effort. Ted's attention to a myriad of administrative and logistic issues made a significant contribution to the committee's successful conclusion of its task.

BRIG GEN ALBERT J. KAEHN, JR., USAF (RETIRED)

CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON NATIONAL AVIATION WEATHER SERVICES

2  

See Appendix B for a list of committee members.

 

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
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Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
×

Chapter 4:

 

Research and Development

 

41

   

Federal Planning

 

42

   

Research Organizations

 

42

   

Planning Documents

 

43

   

Planning and Coordination

 

43

   

Longer-Term Research Priorities

 

44

   

Strengthening the Research Program

 

45

   

Priorities

 

45

   

Funding

 

45

   

Leadership

 

46

   

Process

 

46

   

References

 

46

Chapter 5:

 

Regional Requirements

 

48

   

Regional Variability in Aviation Safety

 

48

   

The Alaskan Example—1980 and 1995

 

49

   

Improving Regional Services

 

50

   

References

 

51

Chapter 6:

 

Future Roles and Missions

 

52

   

Future Alternatives

 

52

   

Assessing the Alternatives

 

53

   

Roles and Missions

 

54

   

Federal Aviation Administration

 

55

   

NOAA/National Weather Service

 

57

   

Private Sector

 

57

   

Department of Defense

 

58

   

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

 

58

   

Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology

 

59

   

State Governments

 

59

   

References

 

59

Chapter 7:

 

The First Step

 

61

   

References

 

61

Appendix A:

 

Summary of Findings and Recommendations

 

63

   

Chapter 2, Current Roles and Missions

 

63

   

Chapter 3, Current Services

 

64

   

Chapter 4, Research and Development

 

65

   

Chapter 5, Regional Requirements

 

66

   

Chapter 6, Future Roles and Missions

 

66

   

Chapter 7, The First Step

 

67

   

References

 

68

Appendix B:

 

Biographical Sketches of Committee Members

 

69

Appendix C:

 

Participants in Committee Meetings

 

72

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
×

Appendix D:

 

Reference Documents for Current Roles and Missions

 

74

   

Organic Act of 1890

 

74

   

Weather Services Modernization Act

 

74

   

Federal Aviation Act of 1958, as amended

 

75

   

National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, as amended

 

76

   

Department of Commerce Appropriations Act of 1963

 

77

   

OMB Circular A-62

 

78

   

FAA/NOAA Memorandum of Agreement

 

79

   

References

 

81

Appendix E:

 

ASOS Assessment

 

82

   

References

 

84

Appendix F:

 

General Aviation Flight Scenarios—1994 and 2015

 

86

   

Scenario One: 1994

 

86

   

Scenario Two: 2015

 

88

   

References

 

89

Appendix G:

 

Federal Funding

 

90

   

References

 

92

Appendix H:

 

Research Documents and Organizations

 

93

   

References

 

94

Appendix I:

 

Detailed Assessment of User Needs in Alaska

 

96

   

Factors that Define Regional Variability

 

96

   

Geography and Weather Patterns

 

96

   

Transportation Systems

 

98

   

Other Elements of the Regional Infrastructure

 

100

   

Cultural Differences

 

100

   

Economic Factors

 

101

   

Regulatory Factors

 

102

   

FAA and NWS Organization and Operations

 

102

   

Impact of Regional Variability on the Level of Available Information

 

103

   

Options for Improving Regional Services

 

104

   

Weather Observations

 

104

   

Dissemination

 

105

   

References

 

106

Appendix J:

 

Alternative Approaches for Improving Aviation Weather Services and Research

 

107

   

References,

 

109

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
×

Acronyms


ACARS

Aeronautical Radio Inc. (ARINC) Communications and Reporting System

AFSS

Automated Flight Service Station

ARTCC

Air Route Traffic Control Center

ASOS

Automated Surface Observing System

AWOS

Automated Weather Observing System


COMET

Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorological Training

CWSU

Center Weather Service Unit


DoD

Department of Defense

DUATS

Direct User Access Terminal Service


FAA

Federal Aviation Administration

FAR

Federal Aviation Regulation

FSL

Forecast Systems Laboratory

FSS

Flight Service Station


GAO

General Accounting Office


IFR

Instrument Flight Rules


MDCRS

Meteorological Data Collection and Reporting System

MIT

Massachusetts Institute of Technology


NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NCAR

National Center for Atmospheric Research

NOAA

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NTSB

National Transportation Safety Board

NWS

National Weather Service


OFCM

Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorology

OMB

Office of Management and Budget


PDT

Prospectus Development Team


RE&D

Research, Engineering and Development

RVR

Runway Visual Range


TDWR

Terminal Doppler Weather Radar

TRACON

Terminal Radar Approach Control


USWRP

U.S. Weather Research Program


VFR

Visual Flight Rules

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 1995. Aviation Weather Services: A Call For Federal Leadership and Action. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/5037.
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Each time we see grim pictures of aircraft wreckage on a rain-drenched crash site, or scenes of tired holiday travelers stranded in snow-covered airports, we are reminded of the harsh impact that weather can have on the flying public. This book examines issues that affect the provision of national aviation weather services and related research and technology development efforts. It also discusses fragmentation of responsibilities and resources, which leads to a less-than-optimal use of available weather information and examines alternatives for responding to this situation. In particular, it develops an approach whereby the federal government could provide stronger leadership to improve cooperation and coordination among aviation weather providers and users.

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