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I90 controller voiced concern regarding the weather availability on the stars displays. The reporter suggested the possibility of displaying ads-B weather information on the stars displays.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1034496 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201209 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0001-0600 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | I90.TRACON |
| State Reference | TX |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | No Aircraft |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Approach |
| Qualification | Air Traffic Control Fully Certified |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types |
Narrative:
Houston TRACON (I90) airspace is very expansive 200 plus miles wide by 110 plus north-south. There are not enough ASR 9 or 11 radars to cover the entire airspace. Fusion has helped integrate long radars that allows for standard separation to be applied almost throughout the entire airspace. There is one big safety problem. The lack of weather radar displayed on the controller's scopes through the stars platform. There are large gaps in weather coverage that pose an obvious hazard to the flying public when they ask for vectors around storms that are not displayed. We do not need to have a loss of life tragedy in order to fully understand the problems we have now. This issue needs to be addressed as soon as possible and made a priority number 1. Is it possible to use the ads-B weather information from the 12 ground stations that do cover all of our airspace? This seems to be the logical fix and it also would finally provide the pilot and the controller with weather information that is accurate and safe to use all the time.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: I90 Controller voiced concern regarding the weather availability on the STARS displays. The reporter suggested the possibility of displaying ADS-B weather information on the STARS displays.
Narrative: Houston TRACON (I90) airspace is very expansive 200 plus miles wide by 110 plus north-south. There are not enough ASR 9 or 11 RADARs to cover the entire airspace. Fusion has helped integrate long RADARs that allows for standard separation to be applied almost throughout the entire airspace. There is one big safety problem. The lack of weather RADAR displayed on the controller's scopes through the STARS platform. There are large gaps in weather coverage that pose an obvious hazard to the flying public when they ask for vectors around storms that are not displayed. We do not need to have a loss of life tragedy in order to fully understand the problems we have now. This issue needs to be addressed ASAP and made a priority number 1. Is it possible to use the ADS-B weather information from the 12 ground stations that do cover all of our airspace? This seems to be the logical fix and it also would finally provide the pilot and the controller with weather information that is accurate and safe to use all the time.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.