2021 FPAW Fall Meeting Agenda
The Fall meeting of the Friends and Partners in Aviation Weather (FPAW) will be held on 4 – 7 October 2021. Please note that this will be a virtual-only meeting. The meeting will be recorded and the presentation material posted on the FPAW website afterwards. Also, be advised that attendees and participants will need to specifically Register on the FPAW website to receive dial-in information to attend and participate in the FPAW meeting! The registration closes on Thursday, September 30. The registration for this meeting is free.
This FPAW Fall meeting will be a Technical Exchange Meeting (TEM) focused on all Federal agencies that (1) conduct flight operations, and therefore have a need for weather observations and forecasts, and/or (2) perform weather research that currently or in the future may support flight operations. The goal of this TEM is to gain awareness of current and planned research efforts across Federal agencies, identify gaps in support, uncover any redundancies in activities, inform industry and academia (both of which groups are also invited to participate) of needs and opportunities, and brainstorm plans for future collaborations.
Each of the four meeting days has its own focus, briefly summarized below:
Day 1: Traditional Aviation Weather
Day 1 of the TEM will consist of panel sessions on aviation weather within the current legacy system. An overview of the new Interagency Council for Advancing Meteorological Services (ICAMS) organization will kick off the TEM. A session on operations will describe current weather support to aviation, including commercial, general aviation (GA), air traffic control, and military operations. The second session will be on research, development and transition to operations, focusing on weather research currently on-going that is directly related to operations. The third and final session of the day will be on current governance, discussing policy and guidelines that aviation weather research and operations must adhere to and follow, and how those policies may change in the future. Panelists will also discuss governance on the weather provider side that affects and impacts aviation weather. For each session, panelists will provide a short overview of their agency’s role and efforts for that topic, with the remainder of the session consisting of panelists taking questions from the audience. It will be interactive, and it will be lively!
Day 2: Aviation Weather for Advanced Air Mobility Operations
Day 2 of the TEM is primarily focused on the weather needs of advanced air mobility flight operations and research efforts underway related to satisfying these emerging aviation weather needs. The first session will explore current Federal low-altitude operations, the weather information currently being used to guide these operations, and understanding future needs for enhanced weather information to increase mission safety and performance. A subsequent session will overview current research and development efforts geared towards addressing gaps and requirements identified by the agencies, including those for future eVTOL passenger carrying operations. The first panel discussion aims to shed light on the envisioned characteristics of a system able to provide the weather information needed for future weather tolerant AAM operations, and the second panel is to encourage discussion around how to achieve this vision.
Day 3: Multi-Use, Commercial Space and Aviation Weather in the Future
Day 3 of the TEM focuses on segments of aviation weather that don’t get as much publicity but are still important for aviation weather. The first session is a discussion on commercial space and high-altitude aviation. Panelists will discuss how the boom in commercial space affects aviation weather operations, and what role(s) government agencies will play in weather support for these operations. The second session will highlight capabilities that other, non-aviation agencies are working on that could be leveraged for aviation weather or that have an aviation weather component. The final session of the day will be on the future of aviation weather. Panelists will discuss their visions of how future aviation operations will be supported by the weather community. What kinds of new data sources and communication methods are envisioned? Will cloud computing and processing provide new possibilities for multi-agency collaborations? How will new airframes, new fuels, and new routes and pathways impact weather support? And of course, how will climate change affect everything?
Day 4: Synergies and Opportunities
Day 4, the final day of the TEM, will not be for the faint of heart! It will be the session in which what was presented and asserted in Days 1 – 3 is recapped in a meaningful way. A group of participants representing the Federal Aviation Weather enterprise (i.e., NOAA NWS, FAA, NASA, DoD, ICAMS) will be listening to you, the audience participants, as gaps, redundancies and collaboration opportunities that came to light over the previous three days are discussed and debated. Elephants will not be allowed to hide in plain sight (tip of the hat to the late Nick Stoer). At the end of this session, tangible outcomes will be identified, along with the folks who need to pick up the balls and run with them!
We hope you will consider joining us for the entire Federal Aviation Weather TEM!
FPAW Planning Meeting
Please note that the FPAW Planning meeting for next year’s Spring and Fall events will take place on 20 October 2021. We encourage you to use the Submit A Topic link on the FPAW website link to identify topics that you would like to see discussed at a future FPAW meeting. Thank you!