AMDAR for AeroMexico ARINC’s Role in AMDAR

1. AMDAR for AeroMexicoARINC’s Role in AMDAR Mexico City AMDAR Workshop November 08 - 10, 2011 Al Homans Sr. Program Manager ahomans@arinc.com

2. Introduction to ARINC • ARINC has provided information and communications services for the airlines and others since 1929. • We operate one of the most flexible and sophisticated private networks in the world to ensure mission-critical communications for more than 700 transportation industry companies and government agencies, including: • Approximately 100 airlines worldwide • FAA and National Weather Service • For the commercial aviation industry, we provide a global air/ground communications network with voice and data services for airline operations control and air traffic control. • Headquarters in Annapolis, MD, with offices and facilities to serve customers in 140 countries.

3. GLOBALinkTM Air-Ground Communications Services • HF/VHF Voice • VHF Data Link ACARS/VDLM2 • SATCOM • HF Data Link (HFDL) Virtual 100% assurance of message delivery

4. Typical Data Link Applications Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) Taxi From Aircraft Link test/clock Update Fuel/crew information Delay reports Out To Aircraft PDC ATIS Weight & balance Airport analysis V-speeds flight Plan-hard copy Load FMC Departure From Aircraft Engine data Ascent Weather reports To Aircraft Flight plan Updated weather En route From Aircraft Position reports Weather reports Delay info/ETA Voice request Engine info Maintenance info To Aircraft ATC oceanic clearances Weather reports Re-clearances Ground voice request (SELCAL) Take-off From Aircraft Off Approach From Aircraft Provisioning Gate requests ETA Special requests Engine info Maintenance infoDescent Weather reports To Aircraft Gate assignments Connecting gates Passenger & crew ATIS Landing From Aircraft On Taxi From Aircraft In Fuel info Crew info Fault data (from central maintenance computer)

5. History of AMDAR in the U.S. • In late 1980s the concept of an automated aircraft reporting system for collecting weather observations was developed. • FAA and NWS funded implementation and operation of AMDAR in the U.S. – called the Meteorological Data Collection and Reporting Service (MDCRS). • ARINC fielded MDCRS in 1991 • 3 Participating airlines; Delta, Northwest, United • American, FedEx, and UPS participation added. • Southwest Airlines joined in 2005 and Alaska Airlines in 2011. • ARINC has continually provided the service for the FAA and National Weather Service.

6. Importance of AMDAR • AMDAR is an important data source for aviation weather forecasts. • Data show temperature inversions that forecast ceiling and visibility at airports. • Useful in forecasting wind gusts & Low Level Wind Shear in terminal areas. • Used in NOAA’s Rapid Update Cycle model for aviation forecasts. • Benefits to the airlines • Accurate wind forecasts enable efficient routing and fuel savings • Greater predictability of weather hazards • Improved forecasting of local conditions, freezing levels, icing, phases of precipitation, wind shear profiles and turbulence, potential for fog. • More accurate forecasts of temperature, wind, clouds, and storms. AMDAR has become an extremely useful data source enabling a significantly better understanding of atmospheric conditions. (American Meteorological Society, Feb. 2003)

7. Airline Participation • Today’s numbers • 7 participating airlines • Alaska, American, Delta/Northwest, FedEx, United, UPS, Southwest • 1700 aircraft report Winds and Temps • 25 UPS 757s are equipped with Water Vapor sensors • 67 Southwest Airlines 737s being equipped with WV sensors (29 currently operating). • Turbulence reporting being added as airlines equip • Nearly 200,000 observations per day; almost 6M per month. High resolution 3-D meteorological data from commercial aircraft have been shown to improve the accuracy of forecast, from short term (1 hour or less) to 1 week time projections.

8. Content of Typical AMDAR Messages, defined by ARINC 620 • ACARS Header info contains Aircraft ID, Departure Station, Destination Station. (23 – 27 characters) • Time of Observation – Day, Hour, Minute (6 characters) • Latitude in Degrees, Minutes, Tenths (6 characters) • Longitude in Degrees, Minutes, Tenths (7 characters) • Pressure Altitude, feet (4 characters) • Wind Direction (3 characters) • Wind Speed (3 characters) • Static Air Temperature – degrees C (4 characters) • Roll Angle Flag (1 characters) • Phase of Flight (when available) (4 characters) • Turbulence (when available) (4 or 5 characters) • Icing (when available) (4 characters) • Water Vapor Mixing Ratio (when available) (4 characters)

9. Top of Climb (TOC) Top of Descent (TOD) Taxi Take-Off Departure En Route Approach Land Taxi 60 sec interval to ON 6 sec interval to 90 secs from OFF 20 sec interval to 510 secs to TOC 3 min. interval to TOD Typical ARINC 620 Reporting 91 samples during a typical 2:15 flight

10. Sample AMDAR Message with 6 Observations ^AQU DCABFXA ^M .DDLXCXA 020124^M ^BDFD^M FI AS1234/AN N123AX^M DT DDL SFO 020124 D76A^M - ++36502,095,B737-700,100502,AS1234,KSFO,KPHX,0000,SW3006^M 6^M --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- N3736.9,W12221.9,020122,-0006,0126,288,021,TO,4850,^M N3736.9,W12222.1,020123,-0012,0119,293,020,TO,4840,^M N3737.0,W12222.3,020123,00053,0115,284,023,TO,4850,^M N3737.2,W12222.6,020123,00234,0108,291,030,CL,4840,^M N3737.3,W12222.8,020123,00483,0100,297,035,CL,4820,^M N3737.4,W12223.0,020123,00725,0095,295,032,CL,4800,^M -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- :^M ^M ^C -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- S9999.9,S99999.9,999999,99999,999.9,999,999,99,9999, Lat , Long ,DDHHMM,Alt ,Temp,WD,WS,Ph ,MR 6 7 6 5 4 3 3 2 4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

11. AMDAR Data Processing by ARINC • Remove message headers • Extract raw wx data, validate format • Remove airline and flight IDs • Covert to binary (BUFR) format

12. Steps to Implement AMDAR • Sign agreement between airline and ARINC to allow ARINC to distribute data containing meteorological observations from aircraft to the meteorological organization. • ARINC will sign agreement with a government or meteorological agency to support the airline and provide data. • Airlines work with avionics vendor to obtain Software to load in Digital Flight Data Acquisition Unit (DFDAU) to collect observations and transmit via ACARS. • Configure reporting as shown previously for Typical ARINC 620 Reporting. • ARINC can provide sample messages as examples. • Suggest configuring 1 or 2 aircraft to provide AMDAR data. • ARINC will confirm that message configuration and aircraft reporting is OK. • ARINC will establish routing to ensure AMDAR data are forwarded to NWS. • Configure remainder of fleet.