Plain English Meaning

An automatic weather station at an airport that constantly measures the weather and reads it out loud on a radio frequency or phone line, so pilots can hear the latest conditions before landing or taking off.

Full Definition

Ground-based automated weather stations installed at airports that continuously measure local surface weather conditions — including wind direction and speed, visibility, sky condition, temperature, dew point, altimeter setting, and — and the a dedicated radio frequency and/or telephone line. ASOS is the joint /NWS/ surface weather observing network in the ; AWOS is an FAA-commissioned , often found at smaller or , with several configurations (AWOS-A through ) reporting different levels of detail.