Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS)

The Aviation Digital Data Service (ADDS) is jointly developed by NCAR-RAL, NOAA-Global Systems Division, and the National Weather Service's Aviation Weather Center (AWC) with funding from the FAA Aviation Weather Research Program. ADDS disseminates weather products to the aviation community via the web (http://adds.aviationweather.gov). The AWC provides 24 hour-a-day support for Operational ADDS, while an experimental version of ADDS (http://weather.aero) resides at NCAR-RAL and provides next-generation products and services.

FY06 Accomplishments

A number of new products and services developed at RAL were added to the two ADDS sites.  A new display of the Current Icing Potential (CIP) product, including probability and severity, was released on Experimental ADDS, and then transferred to AWC for operational release at the end of this year. The second version of the Graphical Turbulence Guidance (GTG) product, which extends turbulence guidance from 20,000 feet to 10,000 feet above sea level was also transferred to Operational ADDS this year.  A new user interface was created for displaying the second-generation National Convective Weather Forecast product (NCWF2), developed by the Convective Weather PDT.  This display uses a relatively new technical solution known as Ajax and provides users a relatively rich interface while still using a web browser application.  The product will be transferred to Operational ADDS in early 2007.Entirely new in 2006 is an application to address the needs of helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) personnel.  At the request of the FAA, ADDS developers solicited feedback from the HEMS community at a weather forum in March.  Generally, the community liked the ADDS Flight Path Tool but needed a version that specifically addressed the very narrow range of altitudes and short distances in which they tend to operate.  ADDS developers worked closely with the HEMS community to tailor the Flight Path Tool to their needs to improve their weather situational awareness and improve the safety of their operations.  Version 1 of a new HEMS tool will be made available by the end of Oct. 2006. 

FY07 Plans

Operational and Experimental ADDS will be maintained and upgraded to meet user requests.  The ADDS software will be restructured to balance heavy loads; further enhancements will be made to the textual data server; and a gridded data server implemented to create more open standard formats.  In coordination with the FAA's System Wide Information Management Program and the Joint Planning and Development Office, work will begin to make ADDS data available on a machine-to-machine basis.  And finally, further enhancements will be made to the HEMS tool: radar and satellite data will be incorporated, as will user-specific data (e.g., location of hospitals, helipads/bases, etc.); street-level maps will be made available; and a search interface created.