Integrated meteorological advisory system
Weather phenomena like turbulence, wind shear, lightning, heavy precipitation and in-flight icing are major contributors to disruptions in the air transport system. In addition, rare but serious events like the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Iceland in 2010 point out the vulnerability of the air transport system. The related costs for the aviation stakeholders and the economy are considerable. Flight safety and passenger comfort are reduced. Due to climate change and the predicted increase of air traffic, it can be anticipated that the impact of adverse meteorological events will grow in the future. During adverse weather events stakeholders like air navigation services, airlines, and airport operators have to agree on quick and accurately fitting decisions. Thus, meteorological advisory systems that support CIS (Common Information Sharing) und CDM (Collaborative Decision Making) in terms of SESAR (Single European Sky Air Traffic-Management Research) und NextGEN (Next Generation Air Transportation System) will considerably gain in importance.
At the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics an integrated meteorological advisory system is under development that provides timely and standardized information on different weather hazards tailored to the needs of aviation: 5D-MetAdvisory. In addition to the four dimensions geographical longitude, latitude, altitude and time a fifth dimension describes the meteorological disturbance like thunderstorms, winter weather, turbulence and in-flight icing or events like wake vortices, volcanic ash emissions and regions where emissions from aircraft have an increased climate effect or noise. The disturbances are represented as objects marking areas where an aircraft should not fly. Analyses and forecasts of the objects as well as object attributes like moving direction, moving speed, intensity and trend are output and updated as soon as new information is available (=running forecast). Thereby forecast horizons from hours to several days are accounted for (=seamless prediction). Stakeholders have the opportunity to extract information on all relevant meteorological disturbances and get a common and consistent overview of the meteorological situation. Thus, the 5D-MetAdvisory system enables CIS and CDM in terms of SESAR and contributes to safety, efficiency and environmental protection in aviation.
