Current WMO AMDAR

Programme Operation
Dean Lockett – Scientific Officer,
WMO
 Content
1. What is AMDAR - Recap
2. AMDAR Current Status - Recap
3. How AMDAR operates
4. Roles & responsibilities of partners
5. More information & assistance
2. WHAT IS AMDAR - RECAP
 2. What is AMDAR
AMDAR is:
1. An automated aircraft-based observing system
2. Component of WIGOS and WMO GOS
3. PPP - Operated by WMO Member NMHSs with
partner national airlines
4. Operated based on meteorological (WMO)
requirements for provision of data
5. A system that:
i. provides meteorological data in near-real-time on the
WMO GTS
ii. Predominantly uses existing aircraft sensors and
communications
 2. What is AMDAR
• AMDAR onboard software (AOS)
integrated into avionics:
– Data acquisition
– Data processing into messaging
– Interaction with communications via
ACARS
• [Addition of water vapour sensor]
• Data relayed via DataLink
(ARINC/SITA)
• Provision to NMHS for:
– Decode/re-encode (BUFR)
– Transmission on GTS
– Integration into national met.
Applications
– Provision to data users
– National Quality monitoring
• International:
– WMO Data Quality Monitoring System
– Archival and access (WMO GDC)
WMO

2. AMDAR STATUS - RECAP

 3. AMDAR (History &) Status
• Global ABO growing – but
slowly
• 40 participating airlines
• 5,000+ AMDAR aircraft
(10,000 all ABO)
• Over 850,000 observations
per day
 3. AMDAR Status – Participating Airlines (40)
Air Canada Jazz British Airways Korean Air Shandong Airlines

Aerolineas Argentinas Cathay Pacific LATAM Airlines SkyTraders

Aeromexico China Southern Airlines Lufthansa Cargo South African Airways

Air France Delta Air Lines Lufthansa CityLine Southwest Airlines

Air New Zealand Dragon Airlines Lufthansa Germanwings Thomas Cook

Air Nippon Airways EasyJet Airline Lufthansa Passage United Airlines

Alaska Airlines Federal Express NAV Canada United Parcel Service (UPS)

American Airlines Finnair Northwest Airlines

Asiana Airlines Japan Airlines Novair Scandinavia

Austrian Airways JetConnect (Qantas) Qantas Airways

Blue1 KLM Scandinavian Airlines

 ABOP & AMDAR Status - Coverage
WMO

• Geographic Coverage Varies

Graphic Courtesy of NOAA/ESRL/GSD

– Good: USA, W. Euro, E. Asia, Australia, NZ,

So. Africa
– Moderate: So. Am., Cent. Am., Canada
– Poor: E. Euro, No. & Cent. Africa, Mid-East,
W. Asia, SE Asia, Cent. Asia, SW Pacific Islands

• Profile Temporal Distribution

is uneven in those areas
– Excellent: > 24 per day
– Good: 8 – 24 per day
– Minimum: 1 – 7 per day
– Poor: <1 per day
• But not evenly spread in Time
• And mostly Winds & Temps only AMDAR Profiles of Winds and Temps only

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WMO

3. HOW AMDAR OPERATES

 WIGOS Technical Report 2014-2
• Chapters:
1. What is AMDAR?
2. Programme development
3. Cost considerations
4. Agreement/Contract
considerations
5. Design, implementation
and operation

• Now incorporated in Guide

to ABO, WMO No. 1200 –
available WMO Online
Library
 AMDAR Program Development
Process

Airlines Plan, Design,

Requirements Contact with Agreement Implement &
Capabilities Resource
for Data Airlines with Airlines Operate
Assessment Assessment
Assessment of requirements for upper
air data
• WMO
Consider the requirements of upper air data
users and application areas
• Consider national/regional/global aspects
• Assess requirements against current
capabilities
• WMO Rolling Review of Requirements and
tools provide assistance
• Want to determine: • Assessment of
– Can an AMDAR program fill gaps?
– Do applications require the data? requirements for upper air
– Can an AMDAR program provide efficiency
e.g. reduction of operational costs through
data:
reorganisation of the current upper-air
observing system? • WMO Rolling Review of
• Assumed as basic requirements: Requirements:
– Vertical profiles at all major airports
– 8-24 profiles per day http://www.wmo-
–
–
10 hPa low trop., 50 hPa upper
Enroute: 5 to 15 minutes
sat.info/oscar/observingre
quirements
 Assessment of national airlines
capabilities and coverage
WMO
• Potential of airlines to provide
data and fill gaps.
• Assess airlines’ fleets and
operational services.
• What combination of airlines
and fleets could provide the
necessary coverage?
• Does the airline have a strong
internal maintenance division?
• Is the airline well established,
stable and likely to continue
operation?
• Much of the information can
be obtained from the airlines’
websites:
 Contact with Airlines
WMO
Position Role/Relation to AMDAR

Airline CEO or other Executive Officer Understands the impact of weather on airline
operations. May provide initial decision on airline
involvement.

Senior Pilot Representative of pilots to airline executive and

influential in decision-making, will understand
the impact of weather on airline operations.

Flight Operations Manager Manager of all aspects of aircraft operations.

Often the contact that liaises with NMHSs for
weather services, will understand the impact of
weather on airline operations.

Avionics and Maintenance Engineering Will be involved in determining avionics

capabilities and responsible for AMDAR software
integration.
 Building a business case for airline participation
• Benefits for the airline from providing AMDAR
WMO
data:
– Improved weather forecasting skill and
services to aviation by the NMHS
– Improved and more efficient flight operations
by the airline
– Increased safety in flight operations
– Reduction in airline costs (e.g. reduced fuel
consumption)
– Increased airline customer satisfaction
– Monitoring of onboard sensor performance
– Airline demonstrating commitment to reducing
impact on the environment
• See: The Benefits of AMDAR to Meteorology
and Aviation, WIGOS TR 2014-1
• See: AMDAR Benefits to the Air Transport
Industry, WIGOS TR 2016-01
• See: WMO website
 Assessment of national airlines
capabilities and coverage
• Which aircraft types are
operated by the airline?
• Which destinations (domestic
and international) does each
aircraft type routinely fly to?
• What is the age of fleets?
• Do aircraft have ACARS
communications?
• How many vertical profiles per
day are likely to be obtained at
each airport?
• Is software development
required? No. of fleets?
• With airline complete avionics
survey.
Plan, Design, Resource Assessment
• General design aspects:
– Equip domestic/long-haul
fleets or both?
– International collaboration:
data sharing
• Provision of AMDAR data
outside national borders -
long-haul fleets
• International AMDAR data
availability?
– International collaboration
infrastructure sharing (data
processing , optimisation)
Plan, Design, Resource Assessment
AMDAR Software
• Best implemented in modern
larger commercial aircraft
• Current AMDAR relies on
ACARS (Aircraft
Communications Addressing
and Reporting System)
• Two WMO Standards for
AMDAR:
– The AMDAR Onboard Software
Functional Requirements
Specification (AOSFRS)
– The ARINC620 AOS versions 1
through 6 defined in the AEEC
620-8 Data Link Ground
Systems Standard and Interface
Specification.
Plan, Design, Resource Assessment
AMDAR Software
• Development of AOS (if required):
– Inhouse by airline (able to certify)
– 3rd party developer (e.g. Honeywell,
Teledyne)
• Certification & Testing
• Operational flight testing:
– One or more aircraft for 1-2 weeks
– functionality; message format, response
to uplink commands; configuration and
data quality.
– Minimum: Compare temperature, wind
and other meteorological data with co-
located radiosonde or NWP data
– Validate spatial and temporal
coordinates
• Roll out when fully tested and
functional – during routine maint.
Plan, Design, Resource Assessment
Data downlink & delivery
• Data transmitted over ACARS:
2-way communications based
on VHF, HF and satellite
systems
• Generally AMDAR configured
to use VHF communications
for cost reasons.
• Data Service Providers (DSPs):
ARINC and SITA: Airlines
usually have contracts with
one or both DSPs
• Data reception either via
airline (e.g. FTP) or direct
(contract with DSP – require
network connection)
Plan, Design, Resource Assessment
Data processing by NMHS
• Establish system for reception,
decoding and QC of data
• Provision to internal users
• Encoding into BUFR format and
transmission on GTS
• General requirements are
described in WMO Manual on
Codes, WMO-No. 306
• The binary format FM94 should
be used for AMDAR data (Manual
on Codes Volume 1.2 Binary
Codes)
• Specific information and
procedures for pre-processing for
transmission on GTS will be in
the Guide to ABO, Annex III
Plan, Design, Resource Assessment
Data Quality Management
• QC Processing:
– Identify an errant AMDAR data stream
– Implement QC & consistency checks
– Remove the errant data from the
distribution of data on the GTS (i.e.
blacklisting an aircraft)
• Quality monitoring - Identify biases
or systemic issues
• Quality monitoring methods:
– Review QC Processing
– NWP comparison WMO Lead Center for Monitoring of Aircraft
– Radiosonde comparison
– Inter-aircraft comparison Data is WMS Washington:
– International monitoring http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/www/DPS/
• Issues relayed to airline Monitoring-home/mon-index.htm
• More: WIGOS Technical Report 2014-2 Monitoring by NOAA/NWS National Centers
for Numerical Weather Prediction (NCEP):
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/qap/
Plan, Design, Resource Assessment
Configuration & Optimisation
• AOS has basic configurability
for optimisation:
– Report only at particular
airports
– Report only in geographical
areas
• For larger fleets optimisation
might be required:
– Consider for > 50 aircraft
– Data redundancy up to 70%
– Standard AOS will repond to
uplink commands
– Consider participation in E-
ADOS, ARINC
 Plan, Design, Resource Assessment
Data Use
• Plan for use of data:
– Assimilated in NWP
– Integrated into obs. databases
– Integrated into existing or new obs.
visual display systems
• Vertical profiles displayed and used
like radiosonde data
• Overlay AMDAR data with other
observational data
• Stand-alone systems are available:
– NOAA/ESRL/GSD Aircraft Data Web
http://amdar.noaa.gov/java (non-
commercial but password protected)
– MeteoExpert System commercially
available from the Institute of Radar
Meteorology (IRAM), Russian
Federation
Plan, Design, Resource Assessment
Cost considerations
• AMDAR Programmes established with
understanding:
– Mutually beneficial
– NMHS should pay for incremental est. & ongoing costs
– AMDAR is considered Basic Data WMO Res. 40 –
Subject to ICAO Chicago Convention (e.g. airlines
support 10% of basic data)
• A cost comparison between AMDAR program and
radiosonde program is available in the WIGOS
Technical Report 2014-1, Annex 5.
AMDAR Program Estimated Costs
Item Implementation Cost Ongoing Cost Potential Savings
(per annum)

AMDAR Software < 100K USD nil/small (budget for ● AOS already onboard
10% per annum) ● AOS already available
● Functionality

AOS Rollout < 1K USD per aircraft nil/small ● No charge by airline

NMHS Data Processing ● Comms (DSP): 5K USD 8K USD (10%) ● Service provision by DSP
System ● Ground proc. infra.: ● GTS Encoding software
25K USD avail.
● Ground proc. dev.: ● Existing comms
50K USD infrastructure.
● Off-shelf software.
● Regional collaboration.

Optimisation System ● 1M USD (new dev.) 100K USD ● Not required (< 50 aircraft)
● 50K USD (exist., e.g. ● Existing system
E-AMDAR)

Data Communications < 0.07 USD per ● Lower comms cost

observation, e.g. 30 ● AOS Config.
aircraft: 130K ● Optimisation System

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 Contracts and agreements between NMHS/Airline
• Program requirements: The type and number of aircraft to be equipped
WMO
with AMDAR software for reporting at an agreed frequency of reporting
• Costs payable to the airline by the NMHS
• The requirements for performance, fault correction, data quality, etc
• Obligations/requirements of both parties
• Terms and conditions
– Liabilities
– Data rights/ownership - As a minimum: application of Resolution 40
– 3rd party liabilities associated with operation of the program and AMDAR data use
– Ownership and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)
– The time period for operation of the program and “roll-over clause”
• Members should consult their own or hired legal counsel to assist
• WMO can assist, e.g by provision of contract template
Roles & Responsibilities of Partners
Activity NMHS Airline
Meteorological requirements for data √
Establish contact for programme operation √ √
Assessment of airline capabilities √ √
Decision on AMDAR fleet activation √ √
AMDAR Software requirements √ √
AOS development certification √
AOS output testing √
Contract with DSP √ √
Programme Contract/Agreement √ √
Data delivery to NMHS √
Data reception, processing, QC, Monitoring √
Fault & issues reporting to airline √
Correction of onboard faults & issues √
Data transmission on GTS √
Data use √ √
 Coming Soon:
• Increased functionality of Lead and Monitoring Centre
for ABO – daily monitoring and reporting; monitoring
of data availability; online tools for monitoring
• Global Data Centre for Aircraft-Based Observations
– Operated by NOAA/MADIS
– Access to archived ABO/AMDAR data
– Display system
– Operational in 2018
• Reorganisation under the WMO-IATA Collaboration on
AMDAR…
 Further information and support
WMO
• WMO AMDAR Website
http://www.wmo.int/amdar

• WMO AMDAR Resources Site

• References, Manuals,
Standards and Guidelines and
other guidance material
Thank you
Merci