In 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Aviation Weather Research Program, the NCAR Research Applications Program (RAL) and United Airlines completed a feasibility study to uplink a convective weather product called the Cloud Top Height (CTH) into selected transoceanic cockpits using an ASCII textual display written to the ACARS printer. The CTH is derived from geostationary satellite infrared brightness temperatures and a model sounding. The aircraft were flying from the United States to Australia and traversed the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone where convection occurs frequently. This study successfully demonstrated that the existing technology was capable of receiving and displaying the CTH product with a minimum of latency. Pilots used the product to make informed, strategic decisions to avoid hazardous convection ahead of the flight route, well beyond the range of the onboard weather radar.

In 2012, the FAA Weather Technology in the Cockpit and NCAR-RAL completed a Human-Over-The-Loop (HOTL) simulation demonstration at the FAA William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, NJ, within the Next Generation Integration and Evaluation (NIEC) Reconfigurable Cockpit Simulator (RCS). The HOTL simulations were designed as a human factors evaluation of the CTH product using an updated color graphic display as well as the ASCII textual display. The simulation tested the effect that the CTH had on pilot decision making and flight procedures in the cockpit of transoceanic aircraft.

In the study, two flight crews with a pilot and co-pilot were utilized during the demonstration to fly from Miami, FL, south to Lima, Peru. Archived weather cases were used to depict the convection along the flight route using both the onboard radar and the CTH product. During the simulated flight, the pilots’ responses were tested both with and without the CTH display as each crew flew two cases. During the simulated flight, the CTH product was uplinked to the Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) for display after a position report was submitted and was shown as both a color graphic and as the ASCII textual graphic.

Findings of the study showed the following results.

• The uplinked CTH product proved to be valuable in all aspects:
• Crew situational awareness of convective hazards
• Workload reduction
• More precise weather hazard avoidance
• Crew decision making
• The EFB character graphic for CTH was understandable and desired in place of no weather updates
• The EFB color graphic for CTH was preferred and very understandable
• No safety issues were identified as a result of the uplinked CTH product
• Flight crews need to be briefed on CTH and interpretation of the presentation, including its limitations

A realtime demonstration in oceanic airspace is planned to validate the minimum weather services required for safe and efficient flight in oceanic and remote airspace. This WTIC demonstration will be performed with online crews of participating airlines whose aircraft are equipped with portable or installed display capabilities. The feasibility and cost of uplinking convective weather information into the flight deck will be balanced against the operational need for updates. The demonstration is expected to begin in 2017.