TABLE OF CONTENTS In the preceding few chapters we have discussed individual instruments and instrument systems that can sense the atmospheric parameters in their respective fields of observation and process the data in a fairly sophisticated manner to generate a host of meteorological data products. However, aviation, as a spatially distributed activity, extends over more area than is covered by any one sensor. It also requires more kinds of data products than can be generated by any one instrument. Combining data from as many diverse sources as possible would not only enhance spatial coverage but also provide a more comprehensive product set for aviation support. This has led to a systems approach to the aviation weather surveillance problem. Such systems gather and fuse data from many sources and provide high-level products specifically tailored for aiding aviation activities. With parallel development of sensors, aviation weather data are available from a number of sources with different characteristics and wide spatial distribution. Colour Plate 27 shows the diversity and distribution of sensors for generating wind shear products.
In the modern information age with powerful hardware and software available for voluminous data handling in many fields of activity, designing systems for collecting and processing weather data from many sources would seem to be a straightforward affair, but the problem is rendered complex by the widely different types of information sources. First, there are a host of generically diverse sensing instruments with differing coverage, types of observed parameters, update rates, and data formats. These include a...
