Helicopter Association International

Geo-Spatial Weather Layers for Corporate and Commercial Aviation

July 9, 2008--With fuel costs at an all time high, corporate and commercial flight departments are looking towards new technology to better predict the amount of fuel required for a particular flight. In the past year, Flight Explorer and DTN/Meteorlogix have teamed together to create a flight management tool that brings together aircraft tracking and weather information. This flight management tool is essentially a desktop aircraft situational display (ASD) application used by dispatchers and pilots that displays geo-spatial weather layers for preflight planning, and to monitor developing weather conditions. Previously, users had one monitor to monitor aircraft positions and another monitor to watch weather information. The beauty of this technology is that it contains both information on one screen and operates as a powerful flight management decision-support tool.

There are several geo-spatial weather layers available for display in the ASD. Examples include:  

• Five minute radar composite imagery with aqua tops (currently available in the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, the Caribbean and Canada)
• Worldwide satellite imagery
• AIRMETS  
• SIGMETS  
• Convective SIGMENTS  
• National Weather Service watches or warnings  
• Worldwide fronts · Worldwide forecast turbulence  
• Worldwide forecast icing  
• Worldwide forecast thunderstorms  
• Worldwide forecast jet streams  
• Forecast tropical cyclones  
• Volcanic activity

Users select only the weather layers that are of interest to them and then use the mouse on their computer to scroll over the weather layer and retrieve detailed weather information related to the weather layer such as forecasted tops of a thunderstorm and the severity of turbulence at particular flight levels. Because the weather layer is in a geo-spatial format, the user can zoom in or zoom out and not lose definition of the weather layer. No other ASD solution can provide worldwide aviation weather layers in a geo-spatial format.

To stay as up-to-the-minute as possible, radar information is updated every five minutes for accuracy, while worldwide forecast turbulence, forecast icing, forecast jet stream and forecast thunderstorm information is updated every six hours out to 24 hours.

The future is bright for geo-spatial weather layers with aviation applications only in their infancy. In the future, users can expect more monitoring of aircraft and flight routes and additional alerting capabilities based on how developing weather specifically affects flights.

Working together, Flight Explorer and DTN/Meteorlogix offer a complete service for airlines with ASD tracking information from Flight Explorer and geo-spatial weather layers that are complemented by DTN/Meterologix aviation weather information found on MxVision AviationSentry® and real-time access to consultations with meteorologists through DTN/Meteorlogix custom forecasting.

Pricing is related to the number of licenses (or seats) contracted by the flight operations department. Flight Explorer and DTN/Meteorlogix solutions are QICP certified by the FAA offering a comprehensive aviation weather package for commercial and corporate aviation.

©2008 Helicopter Association International. Original Article