First MAWS Shipped to France for CNES

Transcription

1 First MAWS Shipped to France for CNES The first MAWS weather station shipped to France for CNES (Comission Nationale d Etudes Spatiales), the French Space Agency, has been used by the Stratospheric Balloons Launching Centre for a mission at ESRANGE, Kiruna in Northern Sweden, since the autumn of T he MAWS station is working without any problems in temperatures of below 25 C. It is measuring and logging data on temperature, humidity, pressure, solar radiation, and wind speed and direction. The MAWS station is used to measure the severe environmental conditions of the preparation and filling phases of pressurized ceiling balloons, aimed to measure the polar vortex at 20 km height, and which fly for several months. The portable version of the MAWS automatic weather station, equipped with a tripod, is ideal for applications in which easy, reliable and rapid deployment is needed. Satu Torikka Technical Editor and Marit Finne Editor-in-Chief Vaisala News Vaisala Helsinki Finland S ingapore is a sophisticated city state of three million people, a business, financial and tourist center in the heart of the new Asia. The city s modern, comfortable facilities, coupled with its Asian heritage and culture, attract thousands of visitors every year. They fly into Changi Airport which has grown and developed to become a leading airport of the region and a symbol of Singapore s dynamism and success. Voted the best airport by various travel and trade magazines for the last 13 years, Changi Airport has gained worldwide recognition for its efficiency, excellent facilities and friendliness. Voted the best airport by various travel and trade magazines for the last 13 years, Changi Airport has gained worldwide recognition for its efficiency, excellent facilities and friendliness. Vaisala s extensive AWOS system installation was completed in January According to Timo Rytövuori, Project Manager, this was the biggest airport delivery ever carried out by Vaisala. AWOS system for weather monitoring A MIDAS IV Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) designed by Vaisala was delivered to Singapore s Changi Airport during The MIDAS IV system collects, processes, monitors, distributes and archives meteorological data measured by a dedicated set of meteorological sensors located along the runways. The observations performed by the system provide Air Traffic Control and other personnel with the meteorological data required in Category II operations at the airport. The project was carried out in close cooperation with the Civil Aviation Authority of /2001

2 Figure 1. Vaisala s MILOS 500 weather station and wind sensors on the mast at Changi Airport. Vaisala supplies an extensive AWOS system to Singapore s Changi Airport Singapore (CAAS, the customer), Philips (the main contractor), and SingTel Aeradio PL (SAPL, CAAS project consultant and maintenance agent for the MIDAS IV system). Sensing current weather The MIDAS IV system provides continuous reporting of runway visual range and prevailing weather. It is designed to meet the recommendations of ICAO and WMO international air traffic authorities. The MIDAS IV emphasizes system performance and reliability thus maximizing the safety of airport operations. The MIDAS IV at Changi Airport performs the following meteorological observations: wind speed and direction, pressure, temperature and dewpoint, meteorological visibility, runway visual range assessment, cloud height, precipitation and sun duration. The sensors on the runway gather weather data in real-time. The wind sensors (Figure 1), barometers and rain gauges are accompanied by Vaisala s optical sensors: the CT25K Ceilometers and MITRAS Transmissometers (Figure 2). Vaisala s high-performance sensors guarantee the accuracy and reliability of the meteorological observations. Redundant system architecture The sensor data is transmitted to the MIDAS IV central data units (CDU) that perform meteorological calculations for sensor values. The results are displayed by MIDAS IV applications on system workstations and displays. At Changi Airport, the duplication of central data units (CDU) and communication lines guarantees weather data quality and system availability in all situations. Duplication guarantees total immunity against a system shutdown. When a switchover from one CDU to another takes place for any reason, data processing can continue without interruption. Furthermore, duplication of data lines from sensors increases safety in communications. Thus, the MIDAS IV system at Changi Airport has no single point of failure that could cause critical degradation of performance. Easy usability The MIDAS IV system design facilitates easy operating, maintenance and management of the system. The display units, workstations and printers communicate with central data units through a LAN, guaranteeing the system users continuous access to system data. The authorities at various locations at Changi Airport are connected to the system via workstations and displays, and are provided access to system functions. Windows NT provides a stable and easy-to-use operating environment with 156/

3 standard menus and features. With MIDAS IV applications, the user can perform meteorological observation and forecasting tasks. The viewing of real-time weather data, the sending of meteorological reports (METAR /SPECI, SYNOP, TAF, SIGMET) and the archiving of weather data belong to the MIDAS IV s basic functions. Several tools designed for that purpose facilitate system performance monitoring. In exceptional situations, the user can also enter weather parameter values manually. The touch-screen displays serve locations where space is limited, e.g. the Air Traffic Control Tower. The system contains several backup and storage facilities. In addition, the UPS guarantees uninterrupted data flow even in the case of power failure. Generating METAR/SPECI reports Figure 2. Vaisala MITRAS Transmissometer at Changi Airport. The METAR/SPECI application generates routine and special aviation weather reports automatically, yet allows the user to edit the report manually. The system shows a METAR report template on the screen at specified intervals. A SPECI report template appears automatically to warn of rapid changes in the weather conditions. The system fills in the weather data for users, who can check and edit it whenever necessary. The report follows the format VAISALA NEWS Figure 3. The Air Traffic Control Tower is a landmark at Changi Airport /2001 4

4 specified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and allows for the entry of wind shear alerts and other warnings, and landing type trend forecasts. The system validates the report and notifies the user of problems. When the user has finished, he can send the report to the AFTN line with a click of a button. Automatic sending is also possible. Viewing weather data Weather display shows realtime values for various weather parameters in graphical and numerical formats. The values are constantly updated as the system gathers and processes new sensor data. Figure 7 shows real-time weather parameters at runway locations at Changi Airport. The screen is divided into three columns that represent runway end and center locations. Each column contains a wind rose with real-time and calculated wind data. Below the wind roses, you can see various weather parameters including runway visual range, pressure and cloud height. At the bottom, the screen shows the latest sent METAR report. Fruitful cooperation Mr. Lo Weng Kee from CAAS is happy with Vaisala s weather instrumentation and MIDAS IV system at Changi Airport. The MIDAS IV system, introduced on 10 October 2000, has been reliable. He is also pleased that the sensors are practically maintenance-free, with only minor cleaning tasks being needed in addition to the annual basic sensor check, which includes the moving parts. Hannu Katajamäki, Manager of Vaisala s Aviation Weather Business Unit, emphasizes that the meteorological instrumentation at Changi Airport is state-of-the-art technology. During our extensive delivery we had to find ever better solutions for the customer s needs. Since they required a very accurate system, it made us develop and test the MIDAS IV system thoroughly. As a result, we not only improved our product but we are also much better prepared to handle other cooperation with demanding deliveries, says Mr. Katajamäki. Our work at Changi Airport will continue, because Vaisala will install a Low Level Wind Shear system there this year. Thorough testing Tero Koivunen and Hannu Heikkinen, both Software Engineers, and Pirkko Väkimies, Applications Engineer, are members of Vaisala s software team. Before the delivery, the team tested the MIDAS IV software system thoroughly. Figure 7. The weather displays are located at the ATC tower. The approach control is of the LCD touch screen type. 4. Victor Lee, Project Manager from Philips, with the MIDAS IV server computer. 5. Wong Phaey Yuang, Technical Manager from SAPL. 6. From left: Koh Yee Rui (SAPL), Lo Weng Kee (CAAS) and Kway Song Moh (SAPL) /

5 Changi Airport has been voted the best airport by travel and trade magazines for the last 13 years. 8. Hannu Katajamäki (left), Business Unit Manager, and Markus Vuolahti, Product Manager, from Vaisala. 9. Vaisala s software team members who visited Changi Airport during the MIDAS IV installation and site acceptance test, from left: Tero Koivunen, Pirkko Väkimies and Hannu Heikkinen. 10. Project Managers Thomas Jungmann (left) and Timo Rytövuori. 11. Satu Torikka, Vaisala s Technical Editor, was responsible for technical documentation. Since Changi Airport is a leading world airport, technical documentation was a key issue in this delivery. Pirkko Väkimies comments: Vaisala s AWOS system is very advanced, representing the latest technology in computers and networking, with several kinds of measurements, displays and alerting messages. I am very proud of this product. Markus Vuolahti was the first project manager for the Singapore AWOS in 1999 until he changed his job to product manager for wind sensors. According to Mr. Vuolahti, a good example of the testing work at the airport was the occasion when they reprogrammed the date and time of all devices in the system. He remembers: We waited for the system date to run over a critical instant, like the change of the century. For a system with 22 computers and 11 network routers this became quite challenging. In fact, we tested ten different critical dates and performed the test with equipment on and off during the crossover. After passing the job of project manager over to Timo Rytövuori at the beginning of 2000, he still handled some remaining parts of the commissioning and took care of a software upgrade during March 2000 to add audio alarms to the system. Says Mr. Rytövuori: The Changi system is the biggest AWOS system Vaisala has ever delivered. But it was easy to cooperate with SAPL and the customer. Singaporeans are highly skilled at using state-of-the-art technology and have been motivated to learn every single detail of this system. This year, Vaisala will supply Changi Airport with a Low Level Windshear Alert System (LLWAS) which will further contribute to safe flights. Thomas Jungmann will be the project manager. VAISALA NEWS /