Integrating Improved Weather Forecast Data with TFM Decision Support Systems

During the severe weather season, generally encompassing the months of March through October, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Airspace System (NAS) customers collaborate on strategies to minimize the disruption convective weather has on traffic flows. After many observations of transcontinental rerouting decisions, a Transcon Options paper was published in the Journal of Air Traffic Control, April 2004. The proposal suggested that on days when convective weather was forecast over large areas of the eastern states, departures from western airports would file flight plans for customer preferred routings to decision point(s) west of the forecast weather area and then include a reroute around the forecast weather area along a Constraint Avoidance Route to Destination (CARD). If weather develops, aircraft are afforded the opportunity to operate along customer preferred routes for at least a portion of their flight. If the weather does not develop and only if controller workload permits, air traffic control (ATC) could allow flights to continue through the forecast weather area. As proposed, the Transcon Options concept allows customers to operate their flights along customer preferred paths for most of their flight. This paper suggests that by using existing and integrating improved weather forecast products with Traffic Flow Management (TFM) Decision Support Systems (DSSs), flow managers and customers can better collaborate on reroutes to avoid weather and provide the customer with fuel efficient routing alternatives.