Weather Hazard Requirements for NGATS Aircraft

We investigate issues related to defining the weather hazard to aircraft in the national airspace system (NAS) today and extend these hazard issues into the next generation air transportation system (NGATS). We study a variety of weather hazards over different domains of flight: surface, terminal area, and en route. We discuss the root cause of why these weather phenomena represent hazards to the aircraft, pilot, or passenger. Finally, we project into the future to address how information about the hazard may be refined in NGATS, or how communications, navigation, and surveillance (CNS) technology may overcome the detrimental effects of some of these weather hazards.