Amdar coverage & Targeting for Future Airline Recruitment In amdar data sparse regions
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- Australia and New Zealand
- Caribbean and Central America
- Middle East and Central Asia
- Former Soviet Republic Countries
- Airline Survey – Finding AMDAR Capable Aircraft and Airlines
- AMDAR Coverage in Data Sparse Regions
Data rich areasNorth AmericaNorth America, consisting of Canada, the United States and Mexico, contribute over 62% of the data to the Global AMDAR system. The vertical profiles are distributed amongst 174 cites but the vast majority of this data comes from only 5 US “hub” cities. These cities alone contribute 16 % of the Global data. The five US cities were: Seattle - 1617 soundings Miami - 1600 soundings Los Angles - 1368 soundings Dallas - 1225 soundings Chicago - 1076 soundings Clearly, optimization of the AMDAR data received in these areas is an important priority. On the other hand, even within this region, the distribution of observations is not uniform. There are areas in each of these countries where data is relatively sparse. In particular, there are large areas of the Canadian North that only receive coverage due to polar over flights, as shown in Figure 10. With an extremely sparse population and little infrastructure local flights tend to be via regional carriers flying older and / or smaller aircraft. These aircraft are commonly more capable of acquiring or transmitting reliable AMDAR data. In any case, VHF ACARS is not available in most areas. There are also areas of Northern Mexico and western US that have relatively little coverage.
JapanDespite its relatively small area, Japan still produces over 10% of the vertical profile data for the Global AMDAR system. This is distributed amongst 13 cities but 46% of the soundings occur at Tokyo’s Narita Airport alone. South KoreaKorea represents almost 2.4% of the Global AMDAR soundings. The majority of these occur at a relatively small number of locations within South Korea, specifically Busan, Incheon, Jeju and Seoul. The high number of soundings is the result of the participation in a National AMDAR program by Korean Airlines and Asiana Airlines. ChinaFlights in and around China contributed about 1.1% of the Global AMDAR data total spread over 17 cities across the country. The largest number of soundings was received at Beijing with 95 soundings during the week. EuropeEurope also contributed roughly 10 % of the vertical profiles to the Global AMDAR system. However, these soundings were relatively well distributed over 125 cities, with the largest single contributor being Stockholm at almost 18% of the European data. However, the soundings in the European region appear to be relatively well distributed. Australia and New ZealandAustralia and New Zealand contributed 6.2% of the vertical profile data. This was spread over 28 cities with the largest contributions from Sydney and Melbourne which together contributed 35% of the total for the region. Data Sparse RegionsThe following regions currently contribute relatively little to Global AMDAR data. South AmericaThe South American continent accounted for very low levels of inclusion in the Global AMDAR data. The majority of the data again came from over-flights which originated or terminated at only 13 cities across the continent. The entire continent of South America typically accounts for only 0.3% of all global AMDAR soundings. Caribbean and Central AmericaThe Caribbean region accounts for roughly 1% of the Global AMDAR data. This is distributed amongst 18 airports in the region. San Juan, Puerto Rico accounts for more than a quarter of this data with 120 soundings over the week. This region gets considerable tourist traffic throughout the winter months. The total number of observations is therefore expected to vary seasonally, depending on the carriers flying to specific destinations. AMDAR data is provided by European and American carriers rather than inter-island airlines. The Central American region also accounted for approximately 0.3 % of the Global AMDAR soundings, even though the area of this region is much smaller than that of South America. Soundings were received from only 6 cities. It appears that the majority of the data was transmitted by US carriers.
AfricaWhile there appears to be relatively good AMDAR coverage over Africa, examination of Figures 7 and 9 show that the vast majority of the coverage is from over flights. From Figure 7 the over flights appear to follow established routes or airways, from Europe to South Africa or routes across the Indian Ocean to the east of South America to the west. Sounding, or vertical profile data, in Africa accounts for only 2.6% of the global total with the majority occurring in South Africa and 45% of the total occurring at Johannesburg alone. There are typically only 30 cities reporting soundings across the entire continent. This is shown in Figures 9 and 10. This level of coverage is poor given the size and population of the continent.
The Middle East region accounted for 0.5% of Global AMDAR data during this time period. This data was distributed between 14 cities in the region, with the maximum number of soundings (42) at one location, Tel Aviv. Only one city, Bombay, reported AMDAR data in the Central Asian region. Over-flight data tended to be from flights to and from the region. While the geopolitics of the region may limit the participation of local countries and airlines, there are a number of sophisticated airlines operating modern fleets in the area.
Asia PacificThe Asia Pacific region was arbitrarily defined as including the South East Asian region but excluding Japan, China and Korea. The level of AMDAR soundings was generally low with less than 1% of the Global total however Singapore had good coverage with the highest number of soundings over the week at 221. Only 9 cities reported AMDAR soundings. As with the Middle East and Central Asian region, it is a populous region with a number of sophisticated airlines. Former Soviet Republic CountriesThis region has been defined as roughly the area of the former Soviet Union. It contributed 1.1% of the sounding data over 27 cities, mostly in the western part of the region, as shown in Figure 9. Moscow reported only 71 of a total of 468 soundings for the week. Figure 7 shows that there is a significant amount of enroute data crossing the region, both between Europe and Asia, and trans-polar flights between North America and Asia. Airline Survey – Finding AMDAR Capable Aircraft and AirlinesAircraft Types Acceptable for AMDARAccording to Airclaims databases, when this report was written, there were 1329 airlines operating around the globe. These airlines have 27,152 aircraft in service, a mixture of aircraft types from modern jet aircraft to older piston aircraft. A preliminary analysis showed that there were several sophisticated airlines in each of the data sparse regions that operated fleets of modern jet aircraft. Therefore, in order to simplify the selection of AMDAR capable airlines, only airlines that operate modern aircraft types that are known to reliably produce good data have been chosen in each region. These aircraft types are indicated in Table 5. At the beginning of this project the authors attempted to analyze the reject lists produced by the AMDAR data assimilation systems to find “problematic” aircraft types, or those less suitable for AMDAR. This was based on the possibility that to obtain good AMDAR coverage over the data sparse regions a wide range of aircraft types, including older and smaller aircraft types, would be required. However, once it became apparent that there are sophisticated airlines in these regions, the authors abandoned this approach to concentrate on aircraft types proven to provide reliable AMDAR data. Though there are a growing number of regional aircraft such as the Embraer 170/190 and ATR 42/72 entering service worldwide, it was decided that these aircraft would not be directly in the focus of the survey. The reader will see that some of these aircraft types will be found in small numbers in the data. This was done in order to see if the addition of the type would add significantly to the coverage maps.
Table 5: Aircraft types selected as reliably AMDAR capable. While this approach may significantly underestimate potential AMDAR aircraft in Data Sparse Regions, it focuses the search toward the more sophisticated airlines operating known aircraft with known AMDAR capabilities. In the opinion of the authors, these airlines would be more likely to partner with and participate in an AMDAR program. Information on the coverage of specific areas can be gleaned from the database provided with this report. In some cases, coverage may need to be provided by other data systems such as those provided by AIRDAT LLC or Flyht Solutions Inc.
AMDAR and AvionicsWith few exceptions, each of the aircraft listed in Table 5 would have left the factory capable of collecting and processing AMDAR data, as each of the AMDAR parameters is used in the operation and navigation of the aircraft, and in the optimization of flight parameters and engines. On ACARS equipped aircraft a Communications Management Unit (CMU) and appropriate radios are installed on the aircraft, and AMDAR data sources are wired to the CMU via ARINC 429 or 717 data busses. According to ACARS experts, all ACARS CMUs are essentially “programmable”. They are relatively simple devices that contain a database of messages and commands that can be programmed to transmit a specific message when triggered by a specific event. The CMU database includes the ARINC 620 message set, which includes the meteorological message set. In order to send AMDAR data the CMU must be programmed appropriately. The possible exception to this is the Honeywell Primus EPIC system installed on some Embraer aircraft, and a few other types, most of which are business jets. This is a proprietary system that integrates avionics devices and functions into one unit with the consequence that there are limitations to its capability, and programming may be more difficult and expensive.
AMDAR and ACARSAs described previously, ACARS is al datalink system which is offered by ARINC (Aeronautical Radio Corporation) and SITA (originally Société Internationale de télécommunication aéronautique). ACARS specifically refers to communications protocol based on Telex codes for communication between an aircraft and the ground. The system was originally developed to reduce flight crew workloads and communications requirements on flight crew. ACARS was first deployed in 1978. With a few exceptions, (ie. Airdat’s TAMDAR system and FLYHT Aerospace Solutions (formerly AeroMechanical Services) AFIRS system) all AMDAR data is transmitted via the aircraft ACARS system. In order to collect weather data in flight, the ACARS Management Unit must be programmed to capture this data from the Flight Management System (FMS) or Air Data Computer. As the ACARS system is considered to be “flight critical”, any new software must be developed with the highest standards of reliability as outlined in the technical standard DO-178B. AMDAR data is generally “piggybacked” with other messages transmitted from the aircraft. If transmitted via VHF radio, the transmission is received by the nearest VHF ground station and relayed by ground data link to an ACARS data center. The AMDAR data may be parsed at the ACARS data center or after being passed along to the airline’s data center. AMDAR data is sent to the relevant National Meteorological and Hydrological Service (NMHS).
ACARS System CoverageBoth ARINC and SITA offer VHF, HF and Satellite communication capabilities around the world. Both are highly integrated businesses that offer services in virtually all aspects of airline operations and management, and compete aggressively for airline business. Specific areas include: Integration with air traffic control Reservations and ticketing Operations and schedule management Maintenance management Flight planning Flight weather ARINC and SITA’s global VHF coverage maps are shown in Figures 12 and 13, respectively. Clearly, the areas of best VHF coverage correlate to the areas of best AMDAR coverage. A reported impediment to VHF AMDAR is the reliability of the VHF towers and ground infrastructure in many of the countries within the Data Sparse Areas. According to ACARS experts, the lack of reliability may be traced to geographic or economic issues, or to the manner in which the system is managed by local authorities. Figure 14 shows the global CPDLC and ADS coverage under FANS 1/A. Note that this is the coverage under these programs while both ARINC and SITA’s satellite communication products are capable of full global coverage. The increase in coverage area is limited to transoceanic route areas and few localized places, specifically in Asia, without major effect on the coverage in data sparse regions. AMDAR Coverage in Data Sparse RegionsAs mentioned above, ACARS coverage has been reported to be relatively poor and unreliable, at least for AMDAR purposes, in the Data Sparse Areas. It will be essential for the WMO and NMHS to recruit airlines that actively use satellite based ACARS products as a major part of their operations. While ARINC and SITA are notoriously secretive about the data charges and the deals struck with individual airlines, ACARS experts consulted for this report indicated that for VHF data, most airlines pay a monthly fee, per aircraft, with a set data allowance. According to the ACARS experts, the data allowance is typically generous, allowing for AMDAR data transmissions within the regular airline data traffic. By contrast, data transmission via satellite is priced on a different model. In this case, the airline pays for all data transmitted by the kilobit or kilocharacter. Thus, there is a net cost to the airline for AMDAR data transmitted. Because of the way that ACARS messages are structured it is difficult to assess the exact cost of an AMDAR message transmitted via a satellite network. The ACARS experts consulted suggested that this additional cost was “significant”. One source estimated the cost of satellite data at 2 to 3 times the cost of VHF data. Clearly, for AMDAR to work in Data Sparse Areas, requiring satellite data transmission, a different financial model must be developed. At this point, the simplest model would be for the local NMHS to pay the additional data charges for AMDAR data, perhaps with support from the WMO and international community. Note that with the new communications requirements for the world air traffic control network, significantly more data will move through the ARINC and SITA networks. To a certain extent, data optimizations schemes can reduce the amount of redundant data transmitted by aircraft. However, at some point the inexpensive excess data capacity used for AMDAR may be used to carry required ACARS data transmissions. The AMDAR community should be prepared for this eventuality. 
Figure 12: SITA Global VHF ACARS Coverage in 2009. (www.sita.aero/file/1124/AIRCOM_Coverage_Maps.pdf) 
Figure 13: ARINC Global VHF ACARS coverage in 2010. (www.arinc.net) Directory: Documents Documents -> Concept stage Documents -> Concept stage Documents -> The great global switch-off Documents -> Nonprofit grant application Documents -> The Truth about the Rwandan Genocide Documents -> Annual InStructional unit plan Documents -> Chaos equipment included Download 3.89 Mb. Share with your friends:
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