00 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 20 01 Urging the United States Congress to address outages of Automated Weather Observing 02 System stations and Automated Surface Observing System stations occurring in the 03 state. 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 WHEREAS the Federal Aviation Administration operates and controls Automated 06 Weather Observing System (AWOS) stations; and 07 WHEREAS the National Weather Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, and 08 the United States Department of Defense cooperatively operate and control the Automated 09 Surface Observing System (ASOS) program; and 10 WHEREAS there are 109 AWOS stations and 44 ASOS stations in the state; and 11 WHEREAS ASOS stations were created more recently than AWOS stations; and 12 WHEREAS, of the multiple types of AWOS stations, the state uses primarily AWOS- 13 3 and AWOS-3PT stations; and 14 WHEREAS six AWOS stations in the state are private facilities, owned and 15 maintained by third parties; and 01 WHEREAS the three primary functions of AWOS and ASOS stations are to create 02 valid weather observations, broadcast weather observations for a range of approximately 25 03 miles, and send the data out along landlines on Service A systems, so people can access the 04 data by way of a computer desktop or telephone; and 05 WHEREAS, because of the state's unique geography, the role of aviation 06 infrastructure and the performance of AWOS and ASOS stations is critical to the citizens of 07 the state, especially those living in rural communities; and 08 WHEREAS the state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities reports that 09 82 percent of communities in the state are not connected to the main road system, and citizens 10 of the state rely heavily or exclusively on aviation to connect with supply chains for food, 11 cargo, medicines, and critical care services; and 12 WHEREAS, because of the state's extreme weather and remoteness, aviation 13 infrastructure must be robust and must incorporate redundancies to reduce the functional 14 effects of outages; and 15 WHEREAS many state and federal agencies, including the National Weather Service 16 and the United States Department of Defense, rely on AWOS and ASOS stations to certify 17 weather data for inclusion in critical forecasting models and national climate records; and 18 WHEREAS accurate and reliable weather data is crucial to maintain aviation safety; 19 and 20 WHEREAS, from 2015 to 2023, 6.6 percent of all aviation accidents and 4.1 percent 21 of all fatal aviation accidents recorded by the National Transportation Safety Board occurred 22 in the state, even though the population of the state makes up only 0.2 percent of the 23 population of the United States; and 24 WHEREAS, in 2021, ProPublica and Unalaska public radio station KUCB analyzed 25 the number of deaths in the United States resulting from small aircraft crashes and found that, 26 since 2016, 42 percent of these crashes occurred in the state, compared to 26 percent in the 27 early 2000s; and 28 WHEREAS, according to Federal Aviation Administration outage logs, on an average 29 day in 2023, about one out of every three AWOS and ASOS stations was experiencing some 30 level of outage; and 31 WHEREAS, from 2019 through 2023, approximately 59 percent of all AWOS and 01 ASOS stations had a full outage and 77 percent of all AWOS and ASOS stations had a 02 reduced-service outage; and 03 WHEREAS, from 2019 through 2023, full outages of AWOS and ASOS stations 04 required a median of approximately 3.3 days to resolve; 10 percent of full outages were 05 unresolved for more than 25 days, and five stations had full outages that remained unresolved 06 for more than 154 days; and 07 WHEREAS, from 2019 through 2023, reduced-service outages of AWOS and ASOS 08 stations required a median of approximately 4.4 days to resolve; 10 percent of reduced-service 09 outages were unresolved for more than 54 days, and five stations had reduced-service outages 10 that remained unresolved for more than 637 days; and 11 WHEREAS, from 2019 through 2023, approximately 47 percent of outages were 12 caused by equipment-related failures, 44 percent of outages were caused by 13 telecommunications-related failures, five percent of outages were caused by prime or standby 14 power failures, and five percent of outages were related to another type of failure; and 15 WHEREAS station outages occur more frequently in AWOS stations than in ASOS 16 stations; and 17 WHEREAS AWOS stations are older than ASOS stations, were designed before 18 satellite communications systems existed, and still rely on landlines for transporting data 19 through Service A systems; and 20 WHEREAS, when Service A systems are not working, dispatchers and pilots cannot 21 check the weather at a destination before an aircraft departs, which means that, in many cases, 22 pilots and carriers cannot adhere to rules set by the Federal Aviation Administration; and 23 WHEREAS commercial carriers in the state report many canceled flights because of 24 AWOS and ASOS station outages; and 25 WHEREAS AWOS and ASOS station outages disrupt the critical flow of goods and 26 passengers, create risks to human life and health in medical emergencies, delay essential 27 medication delivery, and negatively affect the provision of perishable foods to communities; 28 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature calls on the United States 29 Congress to include language in the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act to 30 address AWOS and ASOS station outages occurring in the state and specifically to 31 (1) require the Federal Aviation Administration to ensure the reliability of 01 AWOS and ASOS stations or other approved weather system technologies used at airports; 02 (2) require the Federal Aviation Administration to take actions necessary to 03 restore the full functionality and connectivity of weather station equipment and the associated 04 telecommunications systems; 05 (3) require the Federal Aviation Administration to publish on a publicly 06 available Internet website a dashboard with ASOS and AWOS real-time status updates; 07 (4) require the Federal Aviation Administration to include communications 08 outages in its Notices to Air Missions; 09 (5) require the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Weather 10 Service to improve AWOS and ASOS spare part availability; 11 (3) authorize the Federal Aviation Administration to, by regulation, provide 12 for telecommunications redundancy via low-Earth orbit satellite Internet connectivity, or other 13 approved weather technology, on all AWOS and ASOS stations in the state, as a backup to 14 landline connectivity; 15 (4) authorize the Federal Aviation Administration to, by regulation, approve 16 commercially available, aviation-specific weather reporting systems that could be installed at 17 lower cost and used as backups or as replacements; 18 (5) establish, by regulation, an AWOS and ASOS team specifically for the 19 state, dedicated to keeping weather systems in the state operational; and 20 (6) allow the Federal Aviation Administration to, by regulation, authorize the 21 state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to maintain AWOS and ASOS 22 stations or other weather system technology; and be it 23 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Federal Aviation 24 Administration and the National Weather Service to work with Senators Lisa Murkowski and 25 Dan Sullivan and Representative Mary Peltola to address, in the Federal Aviation 26 Administration Reauthorization Act, the AWOS and ASOS station outages occurring in the 27 state; and be it 28 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Federal Aviation 29 Administration and the National Weather Service to work with the state Department of 30 Transportation and Public Facilities to address the AWOS and ASOS station outages 31 occurring in the state; and be it 01 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Federal Aviation 02 Administration to adopt regulations that address the AWOS and ASOS station outages 03 occurring in the state in a manner that accounts for the size, weather, and remoteness of the 04 state, reliance of the state on aviation, and other unique challenges of the state; and be it 05 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Federal Aviation 06 Administration to include the initiatives in this resolution in the Alaska Aviation Safety 07 Initiative, which is an effort designed to identify improvements and investments as part of a 08 comprehensive approach to improving aviation safety in the state. 09 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the 10 Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Mary Peltola, U.S. Representative, 11 members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.