Delivering Superior Enroute Global Weather and Flight Management Through Weather Technology

Fusion 2015.1, a revision of The Weather Company’s industry-leading Fusion flight operations platform, combines weather forecasting and flight management enhancements that improve operational safety, flight efficiency, systems integration, and passenger comfort. The Weather Company, an IBM Business is the global leader in disruptive weather data and flight decision support applications for the aviation industry.

Precision Enroute Weather Forecasting Means Safer and Smoother Flights

• Graphical RPM Turbulence Forecast, an input WSI Forecasters use to produce proprietary WSI Enroute Hazards forecasts, uses a series of algorithms to predict clear air turbulence (CAT). Learn more about our Rapid Precision Mesoscale (RPM) Modeling System in the “About RPM” section below.

WSI Fusion Map featuring Total Turbulence – WSI Flight Plan Guidance polygons, RPM Turbulence Forecast, and WSI TAPS reports.

• Hi-resolution hourly forecasts for High Ice Water Content (HIWC). High Altitude Icing is a major issue facing airlines with susceptible engines (predominantly B787 and B747-8 and potentially others). Although the probability of an event is low, the impact may be severe enough to include ice buildup in the engine, causing engine damage, rollback, and/or flameout. We have developed a proprietary model-output product, which helps in identifying areas of HIWC so that susceptible aircraft can avoid this risk. The WSI forecast is made in hourly intervals out to 33 hours and updated every 6 hours, at 13KM resolution.

Fusion Map displaying HIWC Forecasts (purple) conveying areas of highest risk for aircraft

Expanded Flight and Airspace Management Improves Operations Efficiency

• Display the FAA flight plan filing status within the Desk Flight Progress panel
• Instant click-and-drag flight time calculations to user-selected points on the map to help expedite time-critical decisions and communications when collaborating with flight crew members.
• Optimized route parsing algorithm to better handle waypoint altitude changeovers when multiple cruise levels are used within a flight plan
• Display FAA Air Traffic Control Assigned Airspace (ATCAA) under the special use airspace layers
• User-selectable visibility of North Atlantic Track (NAT Track) transitions
• Water Vapor Satellite imagery accessibility for subscribers to WSI Fusion Replay

WSI Fusion high–definition satellite map displaying flights arriving into North America via the North Atlantic Tracks. Areas of flight-specific ETOPS operations are also indicated (green rings) plus ETOPS ranges, equal time points (ETPs), and enroute alternates.

Flexible Systems Integration and Enterprise Support

• Ability to integrate company-provided Station Observations (METARs), Terminal Area Forecasts (TAFs) and graphical weather overlays
• Enhanced graphical presentation of ETOPS flight plan elements
• Position and Fuel interface has been extended to include additional attributes for enhanced flight following
• Extended support and operations within VMware Horizon Virtual Desktop Infrastructure

For a complete list of features and changes delivered with WSI Fusion 2015.1 please refer to the release notes located under the “Help” menu in the Fusion application, or the WSI Fusion Training Portal located under the same menu.

About WSI’s Rapid Precision Mesoscale (RPM) Modeling System

RPM is a numerical weather prediction system based on the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecast system (WRF-ARW). RPM generates forecasts up to 24 hours ahead with updates every 3 hours in the United States and every 6 hours outside the United States. Precipitation forecasts are calculated from half-hourly instantaneous precipitation forecasts provided by our RPM weather model. Color differentiation is used in this graphical overlay to depict forecasted precipitation types (frozen, mixed, and non-frozen).

About WSI Fusion

WSI Fusion™ is a proactive operations management solution that fuses public and proprietary weather information, airspace constraints, flight information and operational data into a unified and clear operational picture to streamline and enhance operational decision making. WSI Fusion™ takes the guesswork out of flight operations by delivering real-time global tracking and decision support for all phases of flight, helping dispatchers and operations personnel stay aware and ahead of changing conditions, mitigate the impact of disruptive events, and ultimately stay on plan, on time and on budget.

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