1. Current WMO AMDAR Programme Operation
Dean Lockett – Scientific Officer, WMO

2. Content What is AMDAR - Recap AMDAR Current Status - Recap
How AMDAR operates
Roles & responsibilities of partners
More information & assistance

3. 2. What is amdar - Recap

4. 2. What is AMDAR
AMDAR is:
An automated aircraft-based observing system
Component of WIGOS and WMO GOS
PPP - Operated by WMO Member NMHSs with partner national airlines
Operated based on meteorological (WMO) requirements for provision of data
A system that:
provides meteorological data in near-real-time on the WMO GTS
Predominantly uses existing aircraft sensors and communications

5. 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)

6. WMO
2. AMDAR STatus - Recap 6

7. 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

8. 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

9. ABOP & AMDAR Status - Coverage
WMO
Graphic Courtesy of NOAA/ESRL/GSD
Geographic Coverage Varies
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
AMDAR Profiles of Winds and Temps only
But not evenly spread in Time
And mostly Winds & Temps only

10. WMO
3. How AMDAR operates 10

11. WIGOS Technical Report 2014-2
Chapters:
What is AMDAR?
Programme development
Cost considerations
Agreement/Contract considerations
Design, implementation and operation
Now incorporated in Guide to ABO, WMO No – available WMO Online Library

12. AMDAR Program Development Process
Requirements for Data
Airlines Capabilities Assessment
Contact with Airlines
Plan, Design, Resource Assessment
Agreement with Airlines
Implement & Operate

13. 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:
Can an AMDAR program fill gaps?
Do applications require the data?
Can an AMDAR program provide efficiency e.g. reduction of operational costs through reorganisation of the current upper-air observing system?
Assumed as basic requirements:
Vertical profiles at all major airports
8-24 profiles per day
10 hPa low trop., 50 hPa upper
Enroute: 5 to 15 minutes
Assessment of requirements for upper air data:
WMO Rolling Review of Requirements: 13

14. 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: 14

15. Role/Relation to AMDAR
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. 15

16. Building a business case for airline participation
Benefits for the airline from providing AMDAR 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
See: AMDAR Benefits to the Air Transport Industry, WIGOS TR
See: WMO website
WMO 16

17. 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. 17

18. 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)

19. 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 Data Link Ground Systems Standard and Interface Specification.

20. 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.

21. 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)

22. 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

23. 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
Radiosonde comparison
Inter-aircraft comparison
International monitoring
Issues relayed to airline
More: WIGOS Technical Report
WMO Lead Center for Monitoring of Aircraft Data is WMS Washington:
Monitoring by NOAA/NWS National Centers for Numerical Weather Prediction (NCEP):

24. 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

25. 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 (non-commercial but password protected)
MeteoExpert System commercially available from the Institute of Radar Meteorology (IRAM), Russian Federation

26. 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 , Annex 5.

27. AMDAR Program Estimated Costs
Item
Implementation Cost
Ongoing Cost
(per annum)
Potential Savings
AMDAR Software
< 100K USD
nil/small (budget for 10% per annum)
AOS already onboard
AOS already available
Functionality
AOS Rollout
< 1K USD per aircraft
nil/small
No charge by airline
NMHS Data Processing System
Comms (DSP): 5K USD
Ground proc. infra.: 25K USD
Ground proc. dev.: 50K USD
8K USD (10%)
Service provision by DSP
GTS Encoding software avail.
Existing comms infrastructure.
Off-shelf software.
Regional collaboration.
Optimisation System
1M USD (new dev.)
50K USD (exist., e.g. E-AMDAR)
100K USD
Not required (< 50 aircraft)
Existing system
Data Communications
< 0.07 USD per observation, e.g. 30 aircraft: 130K
Lower comms cost
AOS Config.

28. Contracts and agreements between NMHS/Airline
Program requirements: The type and number of aircraft to be equipped 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
WMO 28

29. 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

30. 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…

31. Further information and support
WMO
WMO AMDAR Website
WMO AMDAR Resources Site
References, Manuals, Standards and Guidelines and other guidance material 31

32. Thank you
Merci