Next Generation Network Enabled Weather (NNEW) is a project to develop a 4-dimension (all points, lateral, vertical and time dimensions) weather data cube (4-D Wx Data Cube) from disparate contributors and locations.

Description

Weather

Weather

Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...

 has a considerable impact on aviation

Aviation

Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...

 operations. Providing the accurate and timely weather information required by aviation decision makers is an element of the Next Generation Air Transportation System

Next Generation Air Transportation System

The Next Generation Air Transportation System is the name given to a new National Airspace System due for implementation across the United States in stages between 2012 and 2025. The...

. This will increase airspace

Airspace

Airspace means the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere....

 capacity, improve efficiency, and improve air safety.

NNEW will provide fast access to weather information to all National Airspace System

National Airspace System

The National Airspace System of the United States is one of the most complex aviation systems in the world — consisting of thousands of people, procedures, facilities, and pieces of equipment — that enables safe and expeditious air travel in the United States and over large portions of the world's...

 users by the provision of the 4-D Wx Data Cube. The 4-D Wx Data Cube will consist of:

1. a virtual weather network containing data from various existing databases within the Federal Aviation Administration
   Federal Aviation Administration
   The Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
   
    (FAA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
   National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
   The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration , pronounced , like "noah", is a scientific agency within the United States Department of Commerce focused on the conditions of the oceans and the atmosphere...
   
    (NOAA) and the United States Department of Defense
   United States Department of Defense
   The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
   
    (DOD), as well as participating commercial weather data providers
2. the ability to translate between the various standards so that data can be provided in user required units
   Units of measurement
   A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention and/or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same physical quantity. Any other value of the physical quantity can be expressed as a simple multiple of the unit of...
   
    and coordinate system
   Coordinate system
   In geometry, a coordinate system is a system which uses one or more numbers, or coordinates, to uniquely determine the position of a point or other geometric element. The order of the coordinates is significant and they are sometimes identified by their position in an ordered tuple and sometimes by...
   
   s
3. the ability to support retrieval requests for large data volumes, such as along a flight trajectory
   Trajectory
   A trajectory is the path that a moving object follows through space as a function of time. The object might be a projectile or a satellite, for example. It thus includes the meaning of orbit—the path of a planet, an asteroid or a comet as it travels around a central mass...
   
   

A subset of the data published to the 4-D Wx Data Cube will be designated the Single Authoritative Source (SAS). The SAS is that data that must be consistent (only one answer) to support collaborative (more than one decision maker) air traffic management decisions.

Weather data distribution mechanisms are being developed by the NOAA Research Applications Laboratory

Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

The Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research is a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . OAR is also referred to as NOAA Research....

 (NCAR), NOAA Global Systems Division and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory. Contributions to standards are being made to the Open Geospatial Consortium

Open Geospatial Consortium

The Open Geospatial Consortium , an international voluntary consensus standards organization, originated in 1994. In the OGC, more than 400 commercial, governmental, nonprofit and research organizations worldwide collaborate in a consensus process encouraging development and implementation of open...

. Standards and specifications developed and/or used by NNEW will be layered on top of core services provided by the FAA System Wide Information Management

System Wide Information Management

System Wide Information Management is a Federal Aviation Administration advanced technology program designed to facilitate greater sharing of Air Traffic Management system information, such as airport operational status, weather information, flight data, status of special use airspace, and...

 (SWIM) program.

Benefits

Direct machine access and integration by decision support

Decision support system

A decision support system is a computer-based information system that supports business or organizational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations, and planning levels of an organization and help to make decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in...

tools will reduce the need for interpretation of aviation weather data and will enable better air transportation decision making.