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Concept
Automated airport weather station
Summary
Airport weather stations are automated sensor suites which are designed to serve aviation and meteorological operations, weather forecasting and climatology. Automated airport weather stations have become part of the backbone of weather observing in the United States and Canada and are becoming increasingly more prevalent worldwide due to their efficiency and cost-savings.
In the United States, there are several varieties of automated weather stations that have somewhat subtle but important differences. These include the automated weather observing system (AWOS) and the automated surface observing system (ASOS).
The automated weather observing system (AWOS) units are mostly operated, maintained and controlled by state or local governments and other non-federal entities and are certified under the FAA non-federal AWOS Program. The FAA completed an upgrade of the 230 FAA owned AWOS and former automated weather sensor systems (AWSS) systems to the AWOS-C configuration in 2017. The AWOS-C is the most up-to-date FAA owned AWOS facility and can generate METAR/SPECI formatted aviation weather reports. The AWOS-C is functionally equivalent to the ASOS. FAA owned AWOS-C units in Alaska are typically classified as AWOS-C IIIP units while all other AWOS-C units are typically classified as AWOS III P/T units.
AWOS systems disseminate weather data in a variety of ways:
A computer-generated voice message which is broadcast via radio frequency to pilots in the vicinity of an airport. The message is updated at least once per minute, and this is the only mandatory form of weather reporting for an AWOS.
Optionally, a computer-generated voice message, available over a telephone dial-up modem service. The message is updated at least once per minute.
Optionally (but frequently done), AWOS messages may be transmitted to the FAA for national dissemination via computer. These messages are currently in METAR format, and typical reporting frequencies are once every 20 minutes. This option is only available for AWOS III or IV systems (see below).
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