Eumetnet AMDAR Observing System

1. Jitze van der Meulen, E-AMDAR Quality Manager Courtesy: Bruce Truscott, Met Office, EUCOS technical manager Eumetnet AMDAR Observing System A typical example with significant parallels to COST716GPS / humidity

2. Since 1920’s: Co-operation Aviation & Meteorology  Observation policies  2000: AMDAR

3. Outline International: • What is AMDAR? • Why do we need it? • AMDAR Cost Eumetnet (EUCOS) • EUMETNET-AMDAR Programme • System Performance • Observation Quality • Future Developments

4. What is AMDAR? • AircraftMeteorologicalDAtaRelay • To make avialable to NMHS: Automated observations (wind & temp) from commercial aircraft • A data production & distribution system to GTS

5. Any Benefits?, or“Why do we need AMDAR?” • To meet the NWP community’s requirement for greater quantities of aircraft data: More upper air dataincreased quantities of upper air measurements over our local regions and surrounding areasdata from data sparse areas around the globe • To provide profile data close to major airports: Near real time profiles (at airports) • For forecast verification: Time resolution & timeliness is very good

6. AMDAR Cost INSTALLATION (certified software) • First fleet approx. k€ 20Subsequent fleets k€ 14 COMMUNICATION • VHF:Observation cost ~ € 0.06 Profile cost ~ € 2.00 • SATCOM:Observation cost ~ € 0.24 • Combined:Observation cost ~ € 0.085

7. Defines the EuropeanAMDAR requirement Global Co-ordination EUCOS OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME E-AMDAR E-ASAP Oceanic Segment (OWS ‘M’ and Ekofisk) Territorial Segment (UAWS & RSBN stations) Studies Programme Future Programmes Operations Monitoring Surface Marine Others PROGRAMME COMPONENTS EUMETNET-AMDAR Programme Component EUCOS Programme WMO AMDAR regional activity • Started 1st Jan 1999 (3 year pilot study)- Contract with each participating NMHS (14) • To maximise benefit/cost ratio by: - reducing duplications - data acquisition/management in a cost effective manner

8. WMO AMDAR Panel Tech. Advisory Committee Advisory Committee EUCOS Programme Programme Structure EUMETNET PB-OBS Programme Manager Technical Co-ordinator National contacts

9. E-AMDAR Project, Main Activities In general: • Operate an E-AMDAR network to meet the EUCOS & national requirements • Develop a European AMDAR infrastructure • Recruit new airlines (today: Lufthansa, BA, Air France, SAS, KLM; new: Iberia/AirPortugal/FinnAir, at night: Parcel operators like DHL and TNT) • Develop new tools (web based AMDAR Data Visualization with vertical AMDAR profile plots) • Further developing an efficient infrastructure that will make optimum use of European AMDAR aircraft; • Managing a cost sharing mechanism that will allow E-AMDAR members to collectively fund the procurement of AMDAR data; • Developing new tools that unlock additional benefit from AMDAR observations, such as a web based AMDAR Data Visualization Facility that will serve users with vertical AMDAR profile plots; • Developing more efficient AMDAR software that will reduce the cost of communicating observations from aircraft; • Recruiting additional airlines to increase the availability of data whilst reducing the risk of sudden data losses due to unforeseen downturns in the airline industry; • Developing an increasingly more efficient accounting scheme that gets best value from the most useful observations, supplied by an acceptable minimum of airlines

10. 1: E-AMDAR Network • Aims: To demonstrate advantages of European collaboration - Increase efficiency - Share funding • E-AMDAR Operational network established mid 2000- 10 NMS agreed to contribute- Mainly data in kind contributions • New agreement established for 2001- 12 NMS will contribute: greater cash element - Will deliver approx. 10 Million Obs/year

11. Network Performance

12. Network Performance Cont’d

13. E-AMDAR E-AMDAR QEv Centre QEv Centre E-AMDAR E-AMDAR Technical Technical Co-ordinator Co-ordinator E-ADAS E-ADAS SITA/ARINC SITA/ARINC Network Network GTS GTS Euro Euro Airlines Airlines NMS NMHS Uplinking Uplinking E-ADOS E-ADOS Systems Systems 2: E-AMDAR Infrastructure & Data Management

14. E-AMDAR QEv Centre E-AMDAR Technical Co-ordinator E-ADAS SITA/ARINC Network GTS Euro Airlines NMHS Uplinking E-ADOS Systems Observations: Quality Assessment • Items for feed-back: - bias and instabilities in T(air), FF, DD - performances, availability and timeliness (usually 12 min) - bugs in reports, position or pressure altitude • Quality Evaluation Centre QEvC - daily reports (quick feed back) - monthly reviews (statistics) - quarterly reports, with case studies

15. Observations: Quality Assessment • Items for feed-back: - bias and instabilities in T(air), FF, DD - performances, availability and timeliness (usually 12 min) - bugs in reports, position or pressure altitude • Quality Evaluation Centre QEvC - daily reports (quick feed back) - monthly reviews (statistics) - quarterly reports, with case studies •••••: OBS [###]: HIRLAM

16. Observations: Quality Assessment • Items for feed-back: - bias and instabilities in T(air), FF, DD - performances, availability and timeliness (usually 12 min) - bugs in reports, position or pressure altitude • Quality Evaluation Centre QEvC - daily reports (quick feed back) - monthly reviews (statistics) - quarterly reports, with case studies

17. 3. Additional Airlines • Iberian Peninsula: Iberia, Air Portugal • Finland: Finnair • Night time data: Parcel operators, like TNT & DHL

18. 4. Further Developments • AMDAR Profile Plotting Systems- Experimental Systems available • Humidity sensor - Development a relatively recent venture (FSL) - MKI sensors installed on UPS aircraft - Practical housing design problems to overcome - Sensor drift and contamination problems - MKII sensor being developed - MKII certified for B-757 aircraft

19. Summary