The Indian Meteorological Department has, over the last two weeks, conducted trials of the AWOS on the runways. “In the next few days, the system will be commissioned to the Mumbai International Airport Ltd. It will be operational during this monsoon,” said director of System Instrumentation (Pune), Dr R D Vashistha.

Although airports in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Amritsar and Guwahati are already equipped with AWOS, the system will be functional in Mumbai only this year.

AWOS is an integrated airport weather observing system for airports, accepted world-wide for its proven technology. Australia, countries in the Middle East , Germany, USA and Canada depend on this technology to support aviation operations in bad weather.

“The system will help in terms of visibility and will be useful to the pilots. Usually, Mumbai’s weather is clear. But at times and especially during the monsoons, visibility may get poor and that is when the machine helps pilots locate the runways,” said an MIAL spokesperson.

The AWOS calculates aviation meteorological data such as pressure values, visual range of runways and also generates weather reports called METAR—a description of the meteorological elements observed at an airport at a specific time, including temperature, dew, visibility, cloud height, etc. The system has 12-15 sensors, which are dedicated for collection of data on wind speed and direction, visibility, clouds, temperature, dew, lightening, thunderstorms and sea pressure. The AWOS also has connectivity with the Automatic Terminal Information System at the airport, where the METAR reports will be delivered.

“The same data was earlier available to the pilot after manual data collection. However, with the AWOS, real time data would be made available to the pilot instead of the manual data that could be updated once or maybe twice an hour,” said a pilot from Air India.

The data from these sensors on the runway reaches the Met briefing room through a radio frequency, from where it is processed and through direct connectivity, relayed to the ATC.

“Pilots can access this information automatically on their radio sets,” said Dr Vashistha. “Moreover, the data will also be given to ground staff and other officials who help in flight planning.” The data will be upgraded every 30 minutes in normal weather conditions and every five to 10 minutes in deteriorating weather conditions.

The system will be operational in heavy rainfall too, giving special weather reports issued whenever there is a significant deterioration or improvement in airport weather conditions.