ARINC Meteorological Data Collection

and Reporting System (MDCRS)

Communications Segment of
NOAA’s AMDAR Program

January 14, 2007

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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.

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Air-Ground Communications Services

• Airlines use VHF air/ground data link service to communicate

air traffic control, airline operational control, and airline
administrative control between ground-based organizations and
the cockpit.

Communications Management Unit (CMU)

Air Traffic Services Unit (ATSU)
AIMS
• Aircraft router
• AOA
Aircraft
Printer Conditioning
Multi-functional CMU/ATSU/AIMS Monitoring
Cockpit
System
Display Unit

VHF Data Radio

Flight Management (VDR)
System Central
Maintenance
Computer VHF Digital Radio (VDR)
VHF
Antenna • Digital, multimode radio
• Voice: 25 kHz, 8.33 kHz
• Data: ACARS, VDL/AOA-ATN
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Air-Ground Communications Services

• HF/VHF Voice
• VHF Data Link ACARS/VDLM2
• SATCOM
• HF Data Link (HFDL)
Virtual 100% assurance of message delivery

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Typical Data Link Applications

Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS)

Taxi Take-off Departure En route Approach Landing Taxi

From Aircraft From Aircraft From Aircraft From Aircraft From Aircraft From Aircraft From Aircraft
Link test/clock Off Engine data Position reports Provisioning On In
Update Ascent Weather Weather reports Gate requests Fuel info
Fuel/crew information reports Delay info/ETA ETA Crew info
Delay reports Voice request Special requests Fault data
Out To Aircraft Engine info Engine info (from central
Flight plan Maintenance info Maintenance info maintenance
To Aircraft Updated weather Descent Weather computer)
PDC To Aircraft reports
ATIS ATC oceanic clearances
Weight & balance Weather reports To Aircraft
Airport analysis Re-clearances Gate assignments
V-speeds flight Ground voice request Connecting gates
Plan-hard copy (SELCAL) Passenger & crew
Load FMC ATIS

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History of MDCRS

• 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 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 joined in 2005.
• ARINC has continually provided the service under contract with
the FAA.

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Importance of MDCRS

• MDCRS is an important data sources for aviation weather forecasts.

– Data show temperature inversions that forecast ceiling and visibility
at airports in the LA basin.
– Useful in forecasting wind gusts & LLWS in terminal areas.
– Used in RUC 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.

MDCRS has become an extremely useful data source enabling a

significantly better understanding of atmospheric conditions.
(American Meteorological Society, Feb. 2003)

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Airline Participation

• Today’s numbers

– 7 participating airlines
• American, Delta, FedEx, Northwest, United, UPS, Southwest

– 1500 aircraft report Winds and Temps

– 60 UAL a/c report Turbulence (EDR)

– 25 UPS 757s report Water Vapor

– >100,000 observations per day, >3M 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.

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Airline Participation – No. of Observations

• 3,291,986 Observations from 1,462 aircraft – June 2006

Airline No. of A/C No. of Obs.

American 265 403,428

Delta 375 511,917

Fed Ex 194 437,665

Northwest 41 84,252

United 413 795,634

UPS 124 683,147

Southwest 50 375,943

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Content of Typical MDCRS Messages

• ACARS Header info contains Aircraft ID, Departure Station,

Destination Station.
• Time of Observation – Day, Hour, Minute (6 char.)
• Latitude in Deg, Min, Tenths (6 char.)
• Longitude in Deg, Min, Tenths (7 char.)
• Pressure Altitude, feet (4 char.)
• Wind Direction (3 char.)
• Wind Speed (3 char.)
• Static Air Temperature – degrees C (4 char.)
• Roll Angle Flag (1 char.)
• Phase of Flight (when available) (4 char.)
• Turbulence (when available) (4 or 5 char.)
• Icing (when available) (4 char.)
• Water Vapor Mixing Ratio (when available) (4 char.)

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MDCRS Data Processing by ARINC

Airline
Computers
ACARS
ARINC Data NOAA/OAR
Network RUC Dev
Service NOAA/OAR
ESRL/GSD NOAA/OAR
AMDAR
Central Page
Processor

NOAA/NWS
ARINC NOAA/NWS NCEP
Packet NADIN II “Gateway”
Network BUFR NOAA/NWS
Messages NOAAPORT
BUFR
ACARS Messages
GTS

MDCRS • Remove message headers

Server
• Extract raw wx data, validate format
• Remove airline and flight IDs
• Convert to binary (BUFR) format

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More than 100,000 Observations per Day

• Some regions provide few observations and some provide more than are necessary.
• Adding aircraft to improve coverage in data-sparse regions will increase data overall.
• 86% of soundings come from 51 airports; 13 airports account for 31% of soundings.
• NOAA Objective - Minimum 1 sounding/2 hours from 100 geographically dispersed
airports.

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Optimization Concept

• NOAA desires a minimum of 1 sounding every 2 hours from

100 geographically dispersed airports.
• Model for implementing an optimization system
– 2 soundings per hour from 25 major airports
– 1 sounding per hour from 15 airports
– 1 sounding every 2 hours from 60 smaller airports
– 1,700 soundings per day from 100 airports (assuming 18
hours of operation each day).
* Sounding collection tuned to more fully
reach 100 airport/2 hour goal.
* Better data coverage and cost effectiveness.
• Enable selection of specific aircraft to provide only essential
data to meet needs of forecasting agencies.
• Reduce number of meteorological reports being transmitted
from aircraft without degrading forecasting capabilities.
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Typical ARINC 620 Reporting
Top of Top of Descent
Climb (TOD)
(TOC)

Taxi Take-Off Departure En Route Approach Land Taxi

6 sec 20 sec interval 3 min. interval to 60 sec interval to

interval to to 510 secs to TOD ON
90 secs TOC
from OFF

91 samples during a typical 2:15 flight

• Aircraft must be able to accept commands from the ground to configure reporting.

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Requirements of an Optimization System

• Send uplink message in ARINC 620 format to enable or disable

reporting from aircraft based on a/c departure or destination
airport and scheduled time of departure of arrival.

• Command reporting “On” for ascent, descent, en route, or for

more than one phase of flight.

• Accept pre-planned schedule from NOAA for an entire day.

• Accept changes from NOAA to pre-planned schedule as often

as once per hour.

• Accept flight schedules from participating airlines.

• Match airline flight number and aircraft tail number.

• Assign higher or lower priority to aircraft based on reporting

capabilities.

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Summary

• Commercial aircraft are an important source meteorological

observations for NOAA through the MDCRS program.

• U.S. airlines have been participating in MDCRS for 20 years.

• Currently about 1,500 aircraft operated by 7 carriers provide

over 100,000 observations a day.

• While more data are received from many areas, some areas
are not well covered.

• More aircraft can be added.

• Optimization systems can be used to select aircraft and flights

that provide the most useful data and potentially more cost
effective.
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