Automation of Visual Weather Observations

H. Albert Brown

Jan 1980 · Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, Air Force Systems Command, United States Air Force

About this ebook

A study was performed to determine the feasibility of objectively and automatically determining two key components of an aviation weather observation: present weather and obstruction to vision. The automated system utilized was an instrumented tower and surface array of sensors located at the AFGL Weather Test Facility (WTF), Otis AFB, Massachusetts. The objective method consisted of a decision-tree program (AUTO) based on several uniquely different responses by these weather sensors to the same weather phenomena and on discrimination techniques using tower and surface instrument comparison. The ability of AUTO to monitor rapidly changing weather events and to discriminate different types of weather is demonstrated through selected hourly periods of observations taken at 1-min intervals. Hourly observations generated over a 14-month period, March 1978 through April 1979, are compared with FAA observations to determine the effectiveness of AUTO. Major areas of agreement were found in the discrimination of fog, haze, snow, rain, and no weather. Final results show that the FAA observations of the existence and non-existence of obstructions to vision and present weather were duplicated in 82 and 86% of the cases. Thus the acquisition of real weather for an aviation weather observation, a duty presently performed by a human observer, is obtainable through an objective decision-tree program using an automated sensor array. (Author).