Assessment and Interpretation of En Route Weather Avoidance Fields from the Convective Weather Avoidance Model

This paper presents the results of a study to quantify the performance of Weather Avoidance Fields in predicting the operational impact of convective weather on en route airspace. The Convective Weather Avoidance Model identifies regions of convective weather that pilots are likely to avoid based upon an examination of the planned and actual flight trajectories in regions of weather impact. From this model and a forecast of convective weather from the Corridor Integrated Weather System a probabilistic Weather Avoidance Field can be provided to automated decision support systems of the future impact of weather on the air traffic control system. This paper will present three alternative spatial filters for the Convective Weather Avoidance Model, quantify their performance, address deficiencies in performance, and suggest potential improvements by looking at the ATC environment and common situational awareness between the cockpit and air traffic control.