There is a known memory leak problem in the current version of the application that may result in it exiting and disappearing from your screen. This will typically happen when the application has been running continuously for a long period of time. If this happens, simply restart the application.
It is recommended that users routinely exit and restart the application on the order of once per week to avoid this problem.
If you are starting the application from your browser, this may be an effect of the browser taking control of the sound resource. One work-around is to launch the display application using Java Web Start, 'javaws' from the command line rather than the browser.
UTC is the Universal Time Coordinate, also known as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) or Z (Zulu Time). UTC is later than local time by 9 hours for AKST (Alaska Standard Time) and 8 hours for AKDT (Alaska Daylight Savings Time).
All times on the display are expressed in UTC. Each image is time-stamped with a "valid time" which is the time of the latest sensor data for that display, or, if the data feed is down, the time the image was generated.
Times on the time history images (Airport Winds, Mountaintop Winds, Profiler Winds) are expressed as hour:minute in UTC.
The Alpha alert information is the primary information used by air traffic controllers to communicate potential hazards to pilots. As such, it is designed to be simple, terse, and not to require any interpretation. These alert messages contain the alert area name and either no additional text, an alert, or NA (not available).
The Geographic Map depicting the alert area boxes uses a partially tranparent coloring so that the background geographic details show through. This accounts for the slight difference in color between the Alert and Geographic Displays. The names of the alert areas are shown here.
The table below shows all the possible alert cases and how they are displayed
on the Alpha Display and the Geographic Map.
Note that the map colors are shown overlaid on terrain map contours.
| Alpha Status | Alpha Text | Alert Area Map Color | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| INACTIVE | (blank) | No turbulence hazard likely in this area. | |
| LIGHT | MDT BE20 | Moderate turbulence for a KingAir-type aircraft likely in this area. | |
| MODERATE | MDT B737 | Moderate turbulence for a B737 aircraft likely in this area. | |
| SEVERE | SVR B737 | Severe turbulence for a B737 aircraft likely in this area. | |
| NA | NA | There is insufficient data for the system to make an estimation of the turbulence hazard in this area. |
The winds may look different because they may represent different altitudes.
The profiler winds displayed on the Geographic Map are from the range gate closest to the altitude specified in the legend.
The profiler winds displayed on the Profiler Winds page are from range gates selected to generate a relatively non-cluttered display. Typically this means that every other range gate is depicted. As these winds tend to vary somewhat smoothly with altitude, this allows the trends to be apparent without excessive screen clutter.
The result may be that the range gate data depicted on the Geographic Map display may not be one of the range gates depicted in the Profiler Winds display. They should however be relatively consistent in their depicted wind speed and direction.
On the geographic display, profiler data from a specific altitude is displayed. This altitude is indicated in the legend. If data from this specific altitude is not available, the red X will be displayed at that profiler site.
The status page reflects the overall status of the profiler data. It will still indicate "OKAY" if some but not all of the data is unavailable. It is not uncommon to have strong signals from some altitudes and weak signals from other altitudes because of atmospheric conditions. Data is reported only if the confidence in that data is sufficiently high. See the Sensor Status section of the users manual for more details.
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We also welcome your feedback on the content, appearance, and performance of the JAWS Prototype Displays.