Keeping Runways Clear. Keeping Flights Moving. 

Denver International Airport (DEN) experiences several rounds of adverse winter weather during the cold season that can significantly disrupt airport operations. Runways along with access roads must be maintained and cleared of snow and ice. Safety and efficiency of airport operations hinges on timely and accurate weather forecasts. In the past the airport maintenance community has relied on conventional methods for acquiring and applying weather-related information in the runway treatment and operations decision process, usually from multiple sources. Managing winter storms at an airport requires collaboration in a complex decision-making environment between inter-dependent stakeholders with different objectives. Therefore having a centralized forecast decision support system is ideal for maintenance managers to get a handle on when and where to treat the runways during winter storms. In the mid-2000’s NCAR-NSF created a custom Maintenance Decision Support System (MDSS®) for Colorado with a specific focus on Denver International Airport (DIA) runway operations. The system was specifically configured for all major DIA runways, using known pavement as-builts and rules of practice for treating runways. NCAR has been running an operational prototype system for DIA since 2008.

The MDSS prototype utilizes current weather observations and numerical model predictions from multiple sources to produce route-specific or runway-specific analyses and forecasts of environmental conditions. Output from this process is used to drive an energy balance model to generate predictions of pavement conditions along each route of interest. Together, environmental and road condition information is used to construct recommended treatments, which are based on standard rules of practice for effective deicing and anti-icing operations. An interactive mobile compatible display is used to visualize graphic and text-based treatment recommendations, as well as diagnostic and prognostic atmosphere and road condition data. 

The broad needs met by the current MDSS include the following:

• Centralized Weather Support
• Enhanced Strategic Planning Capability
• Improved Tactical Response Capability
• Improved Adverse Road Weather Notification
• Operation-Specific Decision Support
• Modern Phone Application Display

The MDSS system helps keep runways safe for takeoff and landing.