The remote oceanic meteorology information operational demonstration

Abstract

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Next Generation (NextGen) Weather Technology in the Cockpit (WTIC) program is sponsoring an operational demonstration to evaluate the feasibility to uplink convective storm products to commercial aircraft flying routes over remote and oceanic regions for display on an electronic flight bag (EFB). The effort, called the Remote Oceanic Meteorology Information Operational (ROMIO) demonstration, is a collaborative effort between the FAA, the weather research community, the airlines, and airlines inflight entertainment communications (IFEC) providers. The ROMIO Demonstration project will develop and demonstrate operational strategies for the use of rapidly updated Cloud Top Height (CTH) and Convective Diagnosis Oceanic (CDO) products on the flight deck, in the Oceanic Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) and as part of Airline Operations Center (AOC) flight dispatch operations. Participating airlines include Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines. The domain for storm product creation is contained by the scanning area of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-East and GOES-West satellites. Routes to be flown are between the continental United States (CONUS) and South America, Caribbean, Australia, and South Africa, among others. A select number of airline line check pilots will participate in the demonstration. The ROMIO demonstration will begin in spring of 2018 and continue for approximately 9 months. During the demonstration, feedback from pilots, AOC dispatchers and Oceanic ARTCC controllers will be solicited to ascertain the benefits associated with providing near real-time, rapidly updated graphical information on convective structure.