[wxqc] FAA to End Human Augmentation of ASOS

[Dave Helms]

*FYI... OT  /  FAA to End Human Augmentation of ASOS 

I am just catching up on older emails and saw this post from Gilbert Sebenste on the WeatherTalk list server (one the oldest and best weather servers on the Internet) which I thought ya'll might be interested in.  

Human observers have been "babysitting" ASOS at the larger airports (A and B sites) since the late 1980s  when ASOS was first deployed.  I was once a contract observer at an ASOS site (KMSY) for the FAA and know several of these folks in the DC area; they are dedicated people who work 24*7 to ensure aviation safety.  My sister is an FAA Tower controller (we actually worked at the same airport years ago), they are also dedicated to aviation safety but obviously will not be able deal with and correct the problems with the ASOS systems like the contract observers.  The elements of the weather report that are of interest to meteorologists, vice Air Traffic Control, like hail size, cloud features, snow depth and snowfall will need to be collected 100% by volunteers and other ad hoc human observing networks like Skywarn.  

This is truely the end of an era for the human weather observer.


Regards,

Dave
CW0351

**********************************************************************************************
Date:*         Sun, 26 Feb 2006 14:20:29 -0500
*Reply-To:*     Gilbert Sebenste <sebenste at WEATHER.ADMIN.NIU.EDU>
*Sender:*       WX-TALK General weather discussions and talk
              <WX-TALK at LISTSERV.UIUC.EDU>
*From:*         Gilbert Sebenste <sebenste at WEATHER.ADMIN.NIU.EDU>
*Subject:*      The end of an era: Dedicated manned weather observations.
*Comments:* To: Storm Chaser Email <wx-chase at listserv.uiuc.edu>
*Content-Type:* TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

Cross posted to wx-talk and wx-chase due to relevance on both lists, but 
for different and some equal reasons. I just got word last night that on 
October 1, 2006, the weather observers that also augment/quality check 
ASOS observations at major airport facilities (for those who understand: 
"A" and "B" level sites)...are gone. The FAA has decided that airport 
tower personnel will take over the observations on that date, in a 
cost-cutting move. Those who are dedicated weather observers at these 
airports are now venting on this message board: 
http://forums.ibexwx.com/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=883e43a95a97900bec58d3374c454d8d 
<http://forums.ibexwx.com/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=883e43a95a97900bec58d3374c454d8d> 


Look at the post labelled: "FAA looking to cut for the FY07 budget ...." 
And all the ones more current than that. This means that ASOS 
observation quality checking/augmenting will be controlled by people who 
have a more important responsibility...landing airplanes. And you better 
believe they won't have time to augment or fix a bad observation during 
bad weather! When sleet, hail, tornadoes, rapidly changing visibility or 
precipitation are occurring (along with snowfall accumulation and rate 
amounts, eg, "SNOINCR 3/12"), don't expect to see that consistently in 
the observations anymore, if at all. ASOS can't handle it, and the 
flight controllers probably won't have the time, unless the airport is 
closed, and even then...it will be very hit or miss depending on what is 
happening in the tower. A friend of mine who works part time as an 
observer at a major airport in Chicago was just officially told by his 
boss that he's done as of 10/1/06, along with all of his colleagues 
there. There goes flying safety, and our climate database....right out 
the window. YIKES... 
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Gilbert Sebenste ********
(My opinions only!) ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University ****
E-mail: sebenste at weather.admin.niu.edu ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu
** 
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