XDS: ACARS

ACARS stands for the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, which is managed by Aeronautical Radio, Inc. (ARINC). ACARS is used by airlines to transmit a variety of proprietary air-to-ground communications. FSL uses the term ACARS to designate automated weather reports from commercial aircraft. These data are routed by several cooperating airlines to FSL, who decode and quality control the data. The data stream includes AMDAR data from many European and Asian air carriers. The AMDAR data are subjected to the same quality control and other processing by FSL as the ACARS data.

All data available are included in the “gec” (Global Earth Coverage) data stream. Data covering only the areas around each site are also available.

Further information about these data can be found at the NCEP ACARS website page .

The following measurements are available for all data streams:

• Missing minutes of input data
• Minimum and maximum date/time covered in file

For each observation:

• Latitude and longitude (degrees)
• Pressure altitude (meters MSL)
• Time of observation
• Temperature (Kelvin)
• Wind direction (degrees)
• Wind speed (meter/sec)
• Heading (degrees)
• Mach number
• Water vapor mixing ratio
• Relative humidity
• Dew point (Kelvin)
• Eddy dissipation rate (m^(2/3) s^-1)
• Peak vertical acceleration (meters/sec/sec)
• Peak vertical gust (meters/sec)
• Quality control and error indicators

Data are available at the ARM Archive from 9/22/1998 to 5/31/2008.
This data is no longer being actively collected by ARM. For current data, users may go to the MADIS archive.

Data Availability at the ARM Archive:
nsaacarsX1.a1: 9/22/1998 to 5/31/2008
sgpacarsX1.a1: 9/22/1998 to 5/31/2008
twpacarsX1.a1: 9/22/1998 to 5/31/2008
gecacarsX1.a1: 9/22/1998 to 2/23/2003.

gecacarsX1.a1 Covers the area with Lat (-90, 90) and Lon (-180, 180)
nsaacarsX1.a1 Covers the area with Lat (65, 80) and Lon (-175, -130)
sgpacarsX1.a1 Covers the area with Lat (31.941,41.00) and Lon (-103.561,-91.585)
twpacarsX1.a1 Covers the area with Lat (-20,20) and Lon (110,-80)

These data streams are directly provided from FSL.

ESRL’s Global Systems Division (GSD) (Formally FSL) Web Page
ESRL GSD ACARS web page

Institution
Forecast Systems Laboratory

Check for Data Quality Reports about these data via the ARM DQR web service.

ACARS  Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System
FSL    Forecast Systems Laboratory
GEC    Global Earth Coverage
NSA    North Slope of Alaska
SGP    Southern Great Plains
TWP    Tropical Western Pacific

Moninger, WR, RD Mamrosh, and PM Pauley. 2003. “Automated Meteorological Reports from Commercial Aircraft.” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 84(2): 203–216, doi: 10.1175/bams-84-2-203