WINCOMM UAT Laboratory Test Results and Flight Test Plans

摘要

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) has performed systems engineering and architecture definition to support data transfer of on-board aircraft weather sensor data and dissemination of weather information to aircraft in collaboration with the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) for the NASA WINCOMM program. The Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) system is designed to collect meteorological data onboard aircraft in flight and broadcast the data to ground systems and airborne users in order to improve the data used in forecasting models and to provide real-time hazard alerts. The TAMDAR system is being targeted for deployment on General Aviation (GA) aircraft, which will augment current meteorological observations, especially at lower altitudes and during off-peak times. This work has identified the changes necessary to avionics and ground infrastructure equipment operating on the Universal Access Transceiver (UAT) datalink to support this data transfer and dissemination. This paper details the types of tests executed to demonstrate air-air, air-ground and ground-air data transfer along with the results obtained. Additionally, the testing performed to verify backward compatibility with existing avionics and ground infrastructure equipment will be presented. Further, information regarding the tests to be conducted during the flight test activities will also be provided.