Weather Situational Awareness In The Cockpit

In this Phase 2 effort, PEMDAS Technologies and Innovations (PEMDAS) proposes to fully develop a prototype Weather Collaborative Operating Picture System (WxCOP-PS) using the technologies assessed, and knowledge gained during our Phase I effort. The proposed innovation will deliver complementary (and consistent) graphical weather decision support products to Army aviation stakeholders on the ground and directly into aircraft cockpits to improve individual and shared Situational Awareness (SA). We will leverage our PEMDAS Systems Engineering Framework to design, build, and demonstrate the functionality of a WxCOP-PS that satisfies requirements identified during needs assessment conducted during our Phase 1 effort.  In accordance with AR115-10 (Weather Support for the US Army), the WxCOP-PS will leverage weather data from authoritative sources, to generate and deliver tailored graphical weather decision support products to Army aviation stakeholders. We will develop, build, test, and operationalize custom algorithms capable of extracting information from gridded (2D, 3D, and 4D) weather datasets, (2D) image files, and textual weather data to generate optimized product sets, with extremely reduced file sizes, capable of being exploited within the cockpit.  The airborne segment will be Future Airborne Capabilities Environment (FACE) compliant and integrate with the Aviation Mission Common Server (AMCS) and aircraft displays. The ground segment will integrate with the Tactical Airspace Integration System (TAIS) and associated Army air traffic management infrastructure such as the Army Mobile Tower System (MOTS). The WxCOP-PS will be designed to reduce workload while increasing individual and shared SA by improving team knowledge of the battlespace weather. WxCOP system attributes include: Tactically relevant weather information Collaborative/common operating weather picture Intuitive tailored graphical displays and user interfaces Ability to operate in austere and data sparse environments Compatibility and seamless integration with existing systems Data throughput needed to support concept of getting graphical weather data into the cockpit