Contact: Barbara McGehan EMBARGOED UNTIL: 5 p.m.
NOAA Public Affairs Tuesday, March 21, 1995
(303) 497-6286
Jim Henderson
National Severe Storms Forecast Center
(816) 426-5922, ext. 226
"This system will enable pilots, air traffic controllers and managers to make better decisions regarding flight safety and efficiency by providing more accurate and timely meteorological information on icing, turbulence, and precipitation," said Baker. An operational demonstration of this system, conducted by the National Weather Service and the Forecast Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colo., will begin early this summer.
The new Aviation Gridded Forecast System (AGFS) will provide meteorological data such as icing potential, wind and temperature, turbulence, precipitation, and cloud cover to aviation forecasters. It will improve aviation advisories and forecasts issued by the National Weather Service and will be available to airlines and vendors in a gridded format, thereby enabling the creation of route-specific graphical forecasts.
The AGFS program was developed jointly by the Forecast Systems Laboratory and the National Weather Service with funding by the Federal Aviation Administration's Aviation Weather Development Program. AGFS relies on information gathered from advanced NOAA and FAA sensors, advances in computer models, and advanced methods of forecasting aircraft icing developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
"Better weather related decisions will help improve the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System," said Baker.