The Effect of Ownship Information and NexRad Resolution on Pilot Decision Making in the Use of a Cockpit Weather Information Display

Abstract

A two-phase experiment was conducted to explore the effects of data-link weather displays upon pilot decision performance. The experiment was conducted with 49 instrument rated pilots who were divided into four groups and placed in a simulator with a realistic flight scenario involving weather containing convective activity. The inflight weather display depicted NEXRAD images, with graphical and textual METARs over a moving map display. The experiment explored the effect of weather information, ownship position symbology and NEXRAD cell size resolution. The phase-two experiment compared two groups using the data-linked weather display with ownship position symbology. These groups were compared to the phase-one group that did not have ownship position symbology. The phase-two pilots were presented with either large NEXRAD cell size (8 km) or small cell size (4 km). Observations noted that the introduction of ownship symbology did not appear to significantly impact the decision making process, however, the introduction of ownship did reduce workload. Additionally, NEXRAD cell size resolution did appear to influence the tactical decision making process.