What do the little numbers on the ATIS traffic indicators mean?Such as -23, does that mean an aircraft is minus 2,300' below your height?I've forgotten what they mean.ThanksPeter Sydney Australia

ATIS is basically about weather conditions and active runway. -23 could be a temperature or dew point.

Thanks Bart.I've tracked down my notes. It's the TCAS traffic,heights, descending or ascending in 100's of feet.Cheers,Peter Sydney Australia

ATIS: Automatic Terminal Information Service. Temperatures and Dew points are in Celsius, Visibility in Statute Miles, Wind Speed is in Knots, and Cloud altitudes are feet MSL (Mean Sea Level.)And ATIS: Automatic Identification Transponder System.

Visibility in Statute Miles

Correct for the US, wrong for a number of other countries where it's meters or kilometers. Just to clarify! :(

And ATIS: Automatic Identification Transponder System.

You sure? That's cool, I've heard of ACAS instead of TCAS but never of this one. Learn something new every day. :(Thanks!Etienne

ATIS: Automatic Terminal Information Service. Temperatures and Dew points are in Celsius, Visibility in Statute Miles, Wind Speed is in Knots, and Cloud altitudes are feet MSL (Mean Sea Level.)

Actually the cloud altitude is above ground level not above sea level:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Ter...rmation_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/METAR

Actually the cloud altitude is above ground level not above sea level:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Ter...rmation_Servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/METAR

I did a search in Wikipedia for ATIS and managed to miss the AGL part http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATIS

Correct for the US, wrong for a number of other countries where it's meters or kilometers. Just to clarify! :(You sure? That's cool, I've heard of ACAS instead of TCAS but never of this one. Learn something new every day. :(Thanks!Etienne

I'm just reading off what's on the article here :(

I'm just reading off what's on the article here :(

Ah, now I see, thanks for clarifying. You are referring to this list you posted above I assume? The one thing I see is "Automatic Transmitter Identification System" with the addition "in analog satellite TV", and the other one "Automatic Identification System (AIS or ATIS, where T is Transmission or Transponder)". If you click the latter one it seems to only refer to marine. The article seems to prefer the AIS abbreviation over the ATIS one. Never heard of it in terms of aviation, but I could be wrong. :(