FPAW Annual 2011 - Las Vegas

October 11, 2011 

1:00 – 1:20          Welcome and Overview – Steve Brown, Bob Lamond, Bruce Carmichael

1:20 – 1:35        History of FPAW (Warren Qualley)

1:35 – 3:00        Segment One – Increasing Understanding between the CDM and Weather  Communities (Kevin Johnston)

• Update on CDM Weather Evaluation Team Activities (Tom Lloyd)
• FAA/NWS TFM Weather Working Group initiatives: Progress on aviation weather performance requirements for core 30 airports and airspace flow programs (Kevin Johnston and Cyndie Abelman)
• Ground Delay Program (GDP) Parameters Selection Model (GPSM): Overview of 2011 activities and lessons learned during 2011 on GPSM and GDP parameters at San Francisco based on empirical forecast error distribution and known arrival traffic demand (Lara Cook)
• Localized Aviation Model Output Statistics Program (LAMP): Improvements to convective forecasts in response to user feedback (Judy Ghirardelli)
• Improvements to the Collaborative Planning Process (Matt Fronzak)  

3:20 – 5:00        Segment Two – Near-term Issues (Rocky Stone)

• Session Introduction and real time weather in the cockpit (Rocky Stone)
• Weather Technology in the Cockpit (WTIC) – Near, Mid, and Far Term Research Status (Gary Pokodner)
• Cross-cutting issues impacting operational ATM and cockpit usability of aviation weather technology (John McCarthy)
• Issues associated with air traffic manager/controller training on the operational application of weather decision support technology, and why conversely, it is important for meteorologists supporting ATM operations to also receive adequate “aviation” training (Sherrie Callon)
• “Weather Messaging" and its importance to the operational business of FAA and to industry – why meteorological technical-speak can be a disservice that may obscure the value of weather awareness (Nick Stoer)
• Automatic Turbulence Reporting (Bill Watts)
• Liquid Water Equivalent (LWE) – a New Deicing Standard (Randy Baker)
• Helicopter Weather Issues (Eric Lugger)
• G/A Weather Issues (Heidi Williams)  
• RTCA SC-206 activity (Gary Livack)
• FAA Advisory Circular on the Use of MET/AIS data link information in the cockpit (Roger Sultan)
• 1- Minute ASOS Observations (Jim Block)

October 12, 2011

9:00 – 11:15       Segment Three – Reports on Government Activity (Jaime Figueroa)

• FAA Status update: Budgets, Roadmaps, Reorganization (Jaime Figueroa)
• NWS Status update: Budgets and Services 2020 (Jason Tuell)
• JPDO Wx Working Group Progress and Future Plans (Mark Zettlemoyer)
• Aviation Weather Research Program direction (Steve Abelman)
• Status of Aviation weather research programs and transition to operations (Tom MacPhail)
• Near term improvements in NWS services (Kevin Stone)
• High Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) Status Update (Stan Benjamin)
• Weather systems implementation (Alfred Moosakhanian)

12:30 – 2:45       Segment Four – Integration of Weather and Air Traffic Decisions (Mark Andrews)

(Dave Pace, Shirley Burgess, Warren Qualley, Joe Marshall, Joe Burns, Mike Robinson)

A conceptual framework has been developed within the Government and industry which lays out a sequence of activities by various agencies, including roles and responsibilities. These steps include the provision of weather information, weather translation, weather impact, and weather decision support tools. These decision support tools will be critical to the success of many of the fundamental NextGen concepts, including Trajectory Based Operations and Collaborative Air Traffic Management. Within this framework there are several new transformational concepts, including use of a single authoritative source, benefits derived from a common weather picture, less reliance on weather graphics/data, and more decision support tools which will act as translators. While there are signs of activity within the weather provider and weather translation/impact communities, there is little evidence of a weather decision support strategy. Discussion: who sponsors this decision support tool development and insures these tools are consistent with the NextGen weather concept of operations, what capabilities do these tools support, by what timeframe, how do we validate the assumptions regarding return on benefit from this integrated weather decision support tool concept?

3:00 – 5:00        Segment Five – Quantifying Aviation Weather Forecast Benefits in a Common Model (Bryce Ford)

This segment focuses on the current efforts and future options to gather data to quantify the benefits of aviation weather forecasts in a common model framework.  This panel will summarize existing work in this area from various perspectives and open aviation community dialogue about potential common processes for collecting metrics, and perceived issues that could inhibit the efforts.  The goal is to develop a community consensus on a common methodology for data collection to model benefits from forecast improvements.

Introduction (Bryce Ford)
NWS Perspective (Cyndie Abelman)
FAA Perspective (Daniel Citrenbaum)
Airline Perspective (Rick Curtis)
Airline Perspective (Bill Watts)
Airline Perspective (Randy Baker)

Panel Bio's

Panel of Users of Weather Information

NWS - Cyndie Abelman
Mitre/CAASD - Matt Fronzak
Lockheed Martin - Bill Leber
Delta Airlines - Tom Fahey
ADF - Joe Miceli
NATCA - Matt Tucker
FAA - Cal Smith
FAA/JPDO - Jim Wetherly
NCAR - Tenny Lindholm
NBAA - John Kosak
NWS - Bob Maxson
NWS - Pat Murphy
Cornell University - Daniel Fuka
ARINC - Al Homans
AvMet - Ernie Dash
AvMet - Mark Phaneuf
Colorado Division of Aeronautics - T.K. Gwin
iJet Onboard - Rich Deininger
XCELAR - Geoff Bing