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

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.

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

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 Take-off From Aircraft Off 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 Re-clearances Ground voice request (SELCAL) Approach From Aircraft Provisioning Gate requests ETA Special requests Engine info Maintenance info Descent 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)

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.

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)

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.

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)

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

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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

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.