WHITE - Winter hazards in terminal environment: An automated nowcasting system for Munich airport

The automated winter weather nowcasting system WHITE (Winter Hazards In Terminal Environment) assimilates multiple real-time data sources and assesses problematic winter weather aspects like the differentiation between snow and liquid precipitation, the identification of freezing precipitation and icing plus the rating of surface conditions. The innovative approach of WHITE, combining critical parameters for different predefined winter weather scenarios by means of Fuzzy Logic, classifying hazardous regions and generating winter weather objects, enables the determination of precipitation type and hazard's intensity. By nowcasting the current situation over a period of two hours it is also possible to estimate the beginning and the duration of hazardous conditions within the investigation area. In this work the basics, the data sources and development of the nowcasting system and a participatory sensing approach are described. Additionally the results of two test campaigns during the winter months of 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 are shown and the system's capability is demonstrated with the help of significant case studies.