So ITWS displays were installed not only at the main airport towers in New York but also at several other traffic control centers. Major airline operators, too, had access to ITWS data. We don t want to show raw data on the screen. We want to take the information, update it continually and display it seamlessly. The ITWS screen that air traffic controllers see shows weather systems superimposed on a familiar map.
Storms appear as swirls, and areas experiencing rain or wind shear are highlighted.
Blue lines mark storm movements in the near future, while yellow areas reveal where storm lines will fall within half an hour to an hour. Information alerts on the screen are visible from 10 feet away. And controllers can get an overview of an area having a radius as large as 100 miles, or they can focus in on a region as small as a city block. The M.I.T. team installed it at the New York airports as a demonstration in 1998, with additional funding from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Similar tests were carried out in Memphis, Dallas and Orlando.