Surveying the Effect of Weather Phenomena on Air Traffic Controller Workload

Abstract

When using mathematical methods for the determination of air traffic controller workload based on the different characteristics (complexity) of air traffic situations, it is important to consider the weather phenomena (especially thunderstorm) present in the airspace. Various numerical parameters can be used to describe the effect of thunderstorm on controller workload but it is unclear which of these has the highest impact. One possible method to find this out would be analysing the correspondence between the parameter values of different weather situations and the related increase in workload based on the opinions of experts. In this paper we present a method to prepare a survey among air traffic control experts aimed at unraveling the above mentioned correspondence, focusing primarily on the design and graphical visualization of weather situations.