AWIS features

  • Weather station
  • Radar monitoring system
  • Weather nowcasting system
  • Surface-condition sensors on the runway
  • Intelligent Electronic Spreader Controls (ESC)
  • De-icing spreaders on board slippery control
  • Runway database
  • Anti-icing chemical and wearing course mixture pavement materials
  • Pavement thermal model

AWIS features description

  • Weather station

The first AWIS phase put on the agenda the installation of a meteorological weather station network. These stations provide their data to a data collection center in the area of the airport. This cluster of organized local weather informations is enriched by local informations coming from available weather radars and by global informations coming from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA) database. The NLG nowcasting system processes the whole data.

  • Radar monitoring system

Mini X-band radar have been installed on airport area also. Thy monitor precipitations as rain and snow and we are working on hail detection possibility too. The high-resolution (200 m/218 yd in space and 1 min in time) data are going to be integrated with “classic” weather data mentioned above to develop a better neural weather forecasting model.

  • Weather nowcasting system

This is NLG software (NeMeFo) that processes the whole meteorological data collected. NeMeFo is based on a data-mining algorithm based upon artificial intelligence principles. The software is able to nowcast the evolution of main meteorological parameters up to 3 hours and the possible occurrence of runway critical conditions such as snow, ice and fog.

  • Surface-condition sensors on the runway

AWIS counted on set of special sensors development and setting for monitoring runway conditions. Surface-condition sensors are ice sensors, which provide runway conditions informations (dry, wet, ice) when conditions depend on atmospheric water precipitation or condensation. Surface-condition sensors are contactless surface temperature sensors also. They are currently installed on airport maintenance vehicles and they are fundamental to assess in which fase (solid or liquid) . the atmospheric water could affect daily runway operations. These can monitor runway-surface temperature any conditions. Collected data are transmitted to processing center, which elaborates a thermal map of the runway.

  • Intelligent Electronic Spreader Controls (ESC)

It is an Electronic Spreader Control (ESC) system for the de-icing spreader, able to gather informations from the maintenance-vehicle sensors and from runway-pavement sensors. The ESC is able to process available data to dynamically adjust de-icing spreading parameters and process. At the same time the informations are transmitted to the central processing centre that gathers step by step the complete condition of the runway.

  • De-icing spreaders on board slippery control

This is a slippery sensor and it is installed on the spreaders. The knowledge of the slipperiness of the runway, especially at the contact between the wheel and the surface, allows the spreader to adjust the quantity of de-icing substances. We are studying a model of the revealed values for identification of the surface condition.

  • Runway database

This database is filled in main data collection and processing centre at the airport. Database is constituted of the whole experimental data. These will allow a detailed description of runway pavement conditions.

  • Anti-icing chemical and wearing course mixture pavement materials

Several tests have been carried out to allow the optimization of the anti-icing treatment technique. Further tests will also focus on innovative solutions development for proper construction of wearing courses.

  • Pavement thermal model

A thermal pavement model is in course of study and it will be available as a predictive tool to detect critical conditions for ice formation. It will integrate the information obtained from other components (sensors and predictive algorithms) of AWIS system.