EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
This document defines a 4-D or Four Dimensional (Latitude, Longitude, Altitude, Time) geographically referenced format for the weather objects contained in the various weather data products.

The weather data flow outside and inside the NG-ISS is described. Weather data are comprehensively listed in order to provide a rationale for the necessary attributes (e.g. velocity, height, severity, etc.) that are needed to provide the adequate level of description for each weather object.
The characteristics of the weather data are described in details (content, limits, update rates and latency) – as well as the applicable processing at each stage of the weather data flow.

Based on this description of the weather data flow, the driving factor for the format specification is the need for a geo-referenced, object-oriented format. The format needs to be a commonly accepted format (standard-like), widely used outside the meteorological community - for use by functions oriented towards the processing and the display – and needs to be platform-independent. Existing powerful compression methods on the specified format is another criteria that is of importance considering the potential amount of data to be up-linked and the associated refresh rate. The format needs to be in line with any existing long-term orientation concerning the standardisation and the development of the weather data – and more generally data by itself – exchange formats.

Based on the list of functional needs identified above and the standardisation effort currently going on within EUROCONTROL’s AIXM project, the GML format is selected as the applicable format for weather data exchange within the FLYSAFE project.

A specification of the GML structure to be used for weather data exchange within
FLYSAFE is then provided, along with the identified foreseen evolutions to be addressed during the course of the project;

A set of sample WIMS GML-based output files is provided for future reference.
 
For further information please contact:
Mr. Bertrand Chaigneau: bchaigne@rockwellcollins.com