SNOWTAM

Project Scope

The Digital SNOWTAM Trial was launched in November 2009 and ran until March 2010. It has the active participation of the EAD, airports, airlines and NOTAM offices. The objective was to develop a pre-operational application, in an area where a strong interest of the end users exists.

More Information

Please find the advanced prototype of the application here.

Airlines and other airport users need accurate and easy to read/visualize information about the status of the runway contamination, with snow and ice in winter operating conditions. The use of the AIXM 5.1 “Surface Contamination” model has the capability to provide this data in a format that enables fast graphical visualization, automatic conversion from current text SNOWTAM format for basic services and enhanced services through the use of AIXM 5.1 capable data input interfaces.

Technologies

GIDPlus Framework: Pattern MVC, Java/Java EE, Struts2, Spring, Hibernate, Velocity, XHTML/CSS, AJAX, ExtJS, JavaScript, JQuery, JSON.
Tomcat
LDAP
PL/SQL
Struts2 REST plugin
MAVEN
TOAD
Eclipse
Oracle 10g
Oracle Spatial
GoogleMap API

Specific tasks

design of the AIXM5 database starting from the AIXM5-XML model
mapping packages to import data from EAD (AIXM 4.5) thru an EAD/ESI/ENA interface
design and development of a complete web application allowing administrators, data providers and users from different organizations to manage xNOTAMs with their Features and Time Slices (temporary and permanent delta), add/modify/delete, with complete management of the Temporality
exports in AIXM5-XML according to users’ on-line reports and subscriptions
visualization of data set in a formatted AIXM5-XML
visualization of Features Time Slices with a time-oriented graphical tool (TimeLine viewer)
visualization of some features, like Airspaces with GoogleMap

Objectives

The main objective of the Digital SNOWTAM Trial was to demonstrate to end users, primarily to Airlines, immediate benefits that can be obtained from digital NOTAM implementations based on AIXM 5. This was achieved through an application that provides in graphical and digital format information of high importance in winter operating conditions: snow contamination and friction coefficient, as contained in the current SNOWTAM messages, enhanced with detailed graphical views of the airport surfaces. This was done by exploiting existing information sources:

The current SNOWTAM messages stored in the EAD INO database provide the basic source of surface contamination data;
The airport, runway, taxiway, apron and stand/gate information stored in EAD SDO provide the baseline information required to support the digital SNOWTAM encoding;
Airport Mapping Databases (AMDB), where they exist, provide a more advanced and more accurate data for the airport layout, in order to support the precise encoding and visualization of the data;
GoogleEarth / GoogleMaps provide an easy to use background for the dynamic snow/ice contamination information.

A second objective is the validation of the AIXM 5.1 – Surface Contamination model, which was developed based on the minimal requirements of the SNOWTAM format, augmented with items that allow a precise geographical depiction of the status of contamination of the airport movement area. A third objective was to continue the testing of Web service standards that can support the provision of AIXM 5.1 data to end-user applications. The use of a full REST architecture for the provision of AIXM 5.1 data needs to be investigated. A fourth objective was to start the development of algorithms and open source code that support “AIXM 5.1 to NOTAM text” and “structured NOTAM text to AIXM 5.1” conversions. In particular:

To exploit the semi-structured format of the SNOWTAM messages in order to automatically convert them into AIXM 5.1 encodings;
To automatically convert the structured AIXM 5.1 Surface Contamination data into SNOWTAM message drafts.

The Trial took place end 2009 / begin 2010 and was open for participation to:

Data providers: airports and NOTAM offices that are responsible for issuing SNOWTAM messages and that are interested to exploit the advanced capabilities of the digital SNOWTAM concept;
Data users: airlines that are interested to evaluate the usability of the SNOWTAM information in a graphical format, with enhancements such as precise shape of the surfaces covered by snow;
Developers: companies that are interested to exploit the digital SNOWTAM (AIXM 5) encodings programmatically in order to test ideas and develop new products for end users.

Key Facts

The application provides an Airport Overview page which displays the current SNOWTAM situation across the world (see screenshot above)
It offers a graphical view of the airport surfaces’ status (contaminant and friction coefficient) in the European area. It makes use of detailed Aerodrome Mapping Databases where they are available.
It displays the SNOWTAM that are received through the EAD.
The Trial makes use of the AIXM 5.1 “Surface Contamination” model.
The data is available in visual format using the application and also in AIXM 5.1 format using a REST interface.