*1.2. Related Work*

Dealing with weather in ATC has multiple dimensions, such as accurate weather data, on-ground and on-board systems, visualizations of weather for pilots, ATCOs and supervisors, the determination of weather effects, the rerouting of aircraft, and the monitoring of weather-affected air traffic using deviations from standard routes.

To develop controller support systems for adverse weather conditions, in addition to meeting ATCOs' requirements from these systems, it is also necessary to understand the factors influencing pilots' decisions and their situational awareness when facing predicted or suddenly arising severe weather on their planned flight route [14]. Air traffic management decision making in thunderstorm situations is affected by the uncertainty of such situations [15,16]. Studies have shown that pilots pursue different strategies when avoiding severe weather conditions in general [17,18], even with onboard support functionalities that highlight unobtrusive and important weather characteristics [19,20]. One of the outcomes of Ahlstrom's validations was the discovery that there is still a lack of actual research on the needs of Terminal Maneuvering Area (TMA) ATCOs concerning weather information and support functions [21]. Recent studies also show that air traffic controller support systems may reduce their workload in adverse weather conditions in the TMA [22,23]. The use of decision support tools along with input data considering current and forecasted weather for a user display was also proposed by Evans for the decision loop including impact analysis and mitigation plans [24].

Although weather is one of the most important factors for aviation, ATCOs with no outside view have only selective information about the meteorological conditions in their sector, which they receive from the pilots. When available, they also use general weather information from the Internet, but this is not specifically adapted for aviation. So far, there is no integrated situation-sensitive weather view in their traffic situation display. In 2000, a detailed study on weather impact awareness with respect to the next five minutes that included 20 ATCOs showed that, in almost 40% of the used scenarios, the ATCOs were not fully able to identify the effects of weather on air traffic [25]. Since that time, comprehensive systems such as weather radar have been further developed and are now available at many ATC centers; thus, the meteorological situational awareness of ATCOs should be much greater today. However, detailed studies considering new support systems are not available.
