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Quality Management System

The requirement for all WMO Members to ensure that their meteorological authorities for aviation establish and implement a properly organized quality system comprising procedures, processes and resources necessary to provide for the quality management of the meteorological information to be supplied to the aviation users is a joint ICAO and WMO standard which came into force in November 2012. This standard is complemented by several recommended practices as follows:

The quality system should be in conformity with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9000 series of quality assurance standards and should be certified by an approved organization;
The quality system should provide the users with assurance that the meteorological information supplied complies with the stated requirements in terms of the geographical and spatial coverage, format and content, time and frequency of issuance and period of validity, as well as the accuracy of measurements, observations and forecasts. When the quality system indicates that meteorological information to be supplied to the users does not comply with the stated requirements, and automatic error correction procedures are not appropriate, such information should not be supplied to the users unless it is validated with the originator;
In regard to the exchange of meteorological information for operational purposes, the quality system should include verification and validation procedures and resources for monitoring adherence to the prescribed transmission schedules for individual messages and/or bulletins required to be exchanged, and the times of their filing for transmission. The quality system should be capable of detecting excessive transit times of messages and bulletins received.
Demonstration of compliance of the quality system applied should be by audit. If non-conformity of the system is identified, action should be initiated to determine and correct the cause. All audit observations should be evidenced and properly documented.

The QMS-related activities of WMO were facilitated by the CAeM Task Team on QMS until January 2015.

In 2017, WMO published a major revision to WMO-No. 1100, Guide to the Implementation of Quality Management Systems for National Meteorological and Hydrological Services and Other Relevant Service Providers. The purpose of this Guide is to provide guidance to Members’ organizations that are developing, implementing and/or maintaining competency-based training and assessment programmes based upon the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) competency frameworks established in the Technical Regulations, Volume I (WMO-No.49). Examples of selected Members’ best practices are included in this guidance material to facilitate transfer of knowledge and experience, and thus enable organizations to achieve compliance with the WMO requirements in the most efficient way. WMO-No. 1100 is available on the WMO e-Library.

Competency & Qualification

WMO has the responsibility to establish requirements concerning qualifications and training of aeronautical meteorological personnel (AMP), which comprises aeronautical meteorological forecasters (AMF) and aeronautical meteorological observers (AMO). In addition, WMO is developing competency standards for the core job-tasks in meteorology and the competency standards for the AMP were the first officially adopted such standards by the WMO. The competency and qualification standards and recommended practices are published in the WMO Technical Regulations (WMO-No.49), Volume I - General Meteorological Standards and Recommended Practices, Part II, Chapter 4 and Chapter 5.

According to these technical regulations, since 1 December 2013, aeronautical meteorological services should ensure that their aeronautical meteorological personnel (AMP), both forecasters and observers, meet the WMO competence requirements. To meet these requirements, Members are expected to provide evidence of their AMP competence as part of their quality management system. Members will also need to show that their AMP are continuing their professional development. To assist Members, a CAeM Task Team created a Competency Assessment Toolokit, which can be used as the basis for the development of national competency assessment.

The WMO qualification requirements for the aeronautical meteorological forecasters (AMF) were elevated in the WMO technical regulations from a recommended practice to a standard on 1 December 2016.

The CAeM established an Expert Team on Education, Training and Competency (ET-ETC) and has worked in close coordination with the EC Panel on ETR in developing guidance to assist Members in implementing the competency and qualification requirements (click on Education&Training tab for more information).

WMO has organized competency assessment trainings in all WMO Regions.

The CAeM ET-ETC and the WMO Education and Training Office (ETR) has jointly prepared a Guide to Competency which was published by WMO in 2018. The guide meets a great demand within the international community as it includes general material on defining and writing competencies, implementing competency frameworks that meet organizational needs, assessing for competencies, competency-based training and QMS-compliance. Furthermore, the guide will interface with examples of various competency frameworks that already exist or that are being developed in a WMO context (e.g. for aviation, marine, etc.). The WMO Guide to Competency is available via WMO e-Library as publication WMO-No. 1205. Direct link available here.

Air Traffic Management

PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Best Practices in

Meteorological Information and Services

in support of Air Traffic Management

Executive summary

Table of contents:

1. Introduction

2. Use cases

2.1. Terminal Area operations

2.1.1. Introduction

2.1.2. Best practice Met Services for the Terminal Area examples

2.1.3. Met capability demonstration

2.1.4. AvRDP

2.2. Air Traffic Management

2.2.1. NextGen (U.S.A)

2.2.2. CARATS (Japan)

2.2.3. SESAR (Europe)

2.2.3.1. SESAR1

2.2.3.2. SESAR Deployment

2.2.3.3. SESAR2020

2.2.4. Others

2.2.4.1. CMATS project ‘One Sky’ (Australia)

2.2.4.2. New Southern Sky (New Zealand)

2.3. MET information integration into decision support systems

2.3.1. ALWIN (Japan)

2.3.2. TOPLINK (Europe)

2.3.3. Nextgen Weather Processor (U.S.)

3. Summary

1. Introduction

Air transportation development, ATC to ATM, ICAO ATM ConOPS developed

-Brief overview of the development of Air Traffic Services in recent decades.

-Now FF-ICE, GATMOC is being implemented.

-Development of Trajectory-based Operations concept

Meteorological technology development, high-resolution NWP, next-gen Satellite, remote sensing capability with IT infrastructure

-brief introduction of development in the field of meteorology and telecommunication infrastructure which would enable tailored information and services supporting ATM, i.e. NWP, Satellite, Airborne observation, Doppler radar/lidar… and so on

2. Use cases

2.1. Terminal Area operations

2.1.1. Introduction

With increasing air traffic in several regions leading to severe issues of aerodrome and terminal area operations, different regions have been developing different tailored meteorological products to support Air Traffic Management (ATM) to fill the perceived gap between the legacy products required by Annex 3 and ATM requirements on MET. In particular, the problem of significant convection impacting approach areas, corner points and fixes, which is already bringing significant impact to ATM operations, is not currently addressed by any regulated ICAO products. Similarly it has been noticed that the current legacy forecast service on aerodrome materialized by the TAF product has not been fulfilling needs of operators on high traffic density aerodromes. As a consequence more and more new and innovative meteorological information services in support of terminal area and airport operations have been developed in the recent years. Some best practice examples are presented in the following section, as well as the WMO joint CAS-CAeM Aviation Research Demonstration Project (AvRDP). This project aims at demonstrating benefits of new or enhanced observation and nowcast services for the terminal area focused on high impact weather.

2.1.2. Best practice Met Services for the Terminal Area examples

Automated Thunderstorm Alert Service (ATSAS) User Guide	Bureau of Meteorology, Australia
MET-CDM : MET-CDM process used in Australia at major airports for managing arrival rates at these aerodromes. (presentation) http://www.bom.gov.au/aviation/knowledge-centre/ http://www.bom.gov.au/aviation/data/education/reference-card-yssy.pdf	Bureau of Meteorology, Australia
Canadian Airport Nowcasting System (CAN-Now) Final overview publication here or here	Meteorological Services of Canada, Canada
Convective Nowcasting for Guangzhou Terminal Area (login msta ; pwd mstamsta)	CAAC, CSRA, China
MSTA Wind Field Project (presentation)	CAAC, ECRA, China
MSTA Icing Project (presentation)	CAAC, NCRA, China
Collaborative Decision Making at Paris-CDG [link to presentation on CDM@CDG – in pdf format]	Météo-France, France
Aviation Thunderstorm Nowcasting System (ATNS) Information note Significant Convection Forecast for ATM & ATFM Information note Airport Thunderstorm and Lightning Alerting System (ATLAS) for Hong Kong International Airport Information note Tropical Cyclone Probabilistic forecasts for HKIA [Beta Version]	Hong-Kong Observatory, Hong-Kong, China
ATMetC, TMAT (Japan) (Information paper and presentation) Influence of Weather Forecast on ATM (Japan) (Information paper and presentation)	Japan Meteorological Agency, Japan

[Back to top Best practice examples]

2.1.3. Met capability demonstration

To avoid further costly parallel development of similar products, with a high risk of confusion between similar products using different ways of textual or graphical presentation to users, the WMO Commission of Aeronautical Meteorology (CAeM) formed a dedicated Expert Team with the task to develop, harmonize, and promote a prototype of a forecast for the wider terminal area intended mainly for ATM/ATC and operations staff. As a first step this CAeM Expert team launched a survey towards several representatives of the aviation community in the team members’ States and gathered user needs for new or enhanced meteorological services for the terminal area. The Expert Team thoroughly considered these growing needs. Moreover, taking into account user requirements of existing or emerging MET services for the terminal area (Ref. § 2.1.2), the Expert Team also developed documentation and prototypes for new terminal forecast products. Prototypes for thunderstorm forecast service are available here (login msta ; pwd mstamsta)

In parallel to WMO activities on MET support to ATM, ICAO further developed the Global ATM Operations Concept and introduced through its ATM Requirements & Performance Panel (ATMRPP) the new Concept for the Integration of Meteorological Information for ATM. The development of the latter was entrusted to the Project Team for Meteorological Aeronautical Requirements and Information Exchange (MARIE-PT) and then to the Working Group for Met Requirements and Integration (WG-MRI) of the ICAO Meteorology Panel. ICAO working groups discussed that it could be beneficial to provide the ATM stakeholder community with a clear insight of current and foreseen capabilities from a MET service provision. The WMO CAeM Expert Team supported this activity by providing a comprehensive demonstration information package on current, foreseen and future MET capabilities in support to ATM. Benefits to ATM were also indicated using the Global ATM Concept Component terminology. This documentation is available here : report to MARIE-PT Action, Appendix A (verification) to this report, Appendix B (current and future capabilities) to this report.

For the purpose of the development of the ICAO Concept for Meteorological Information Integration for ATM, the WMO CAeM Expert Team also derived from the aforementioned demonstration materials a conceptual overview of capabilities from a MET provider’s perspective in support of the identified ASBU modules in Block 0 leading into Block 1. The suggested capabilities typically represent MET information services at the functional level of MET-ATM translation or types of MET information Services that could be used for the translation service. This overview is part of the ICAO Concept document as Appendices A & B.

The Concept document for the Integration of Meteorological Information for ATM is available here (version 00.06.00 as of October 2016).

2.1.4. AvRDP

AvRDP is a joint CAS-CAeM Aviation Research and Demonstration Project. Its overall mission is to, through international collaboration, develop, demonstrate and quantify the benefits of end-to-end nowcasting aviation weather services for the terminal area focused on high impact weather. The AvRDP will focus on nowcasting aviation weather, including the respective uncertainty/confidence estimation, over the Terminal Control Area for the next 0-6hr. AvRDP is aimed at providing a more thorough assessment of the abovementioned MET capability (see 2.1.3) and demonstrate its benefits to the aviation community in support of the ASBU initiative.

AvRDP has been conducted in two phases. Phase I focused on research and scientific issues related to NWP forecasting and nowcasting techniques and the associated performance assessment. Phase II is more impact-oriented and has been addressing issues on the translation of MET information into ATM-specific parameters and the associated ATM impact validation.

Documentation and reports of the project are available here . AvRDP and the contribution to the project of Paris-CDG, one of the participating airports, were presented at the WMO Aeronautical Meteorology Scientific Conference (AeroMetSci-2017), in November 2017, in Toulouse, France, here (AvRDP) and here (Paris-CDG).

[Back to top Terminal Area Operations]

2.2. Air Traffic Management

Considering the air traffic growth over the last 25 years and expected to continue in the future, ATM system modernization was deemed necessary. For that purpose several large-scale scale initiatives such as SESAR or NextGen have been launched with the objective of moving toward Performance Based Navigation that will provide safe, secure, efficient and environmentally sustainable air transport system. Those large scale programs have included meteorology, each in a different manner. In all cases, advanced MET information and services have been considered as one of the essential enablers for such improvement of the ATM system. A description of some of these large scale programs is provided in the following sections.

2.2.1. NextGen (U.S.A)

The United States Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) program is a multi-department effort aimed at increasing capacity and reliability in the National Airspace System, improving safety and security, and minimizing the environmental impact of aviation. Primary leadership for the weather component falls to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as the Meteorological Authority for aviation weather. The FAA depends on the National Weather Service (part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA) to provide meteorological products and services, but the FAA also has weather programs in development for NextGen. This section summarizes FAA and NOAA contributions to NextGen weather.

To support the aviation weather needs of the NextGen era, the FAA has developed an architecture to provide specific, consistent products and services to operators and air traffic management. Components of this architecture include the NextGen Weather Processor (NWP), the Aviation Weather Display (AWD), Common Support Services - Weather (CSS-Wx). The NWP ingests information from numerous observation platforms and numerical forecast models, provides a consistent weather picture from the sources, and translates that weather picture into airspace constraints for integration into air traffic decision-making. The AWD consolidates weather information from various displays into a single display. CSS-Wx ensures products from both the FAA NWP and from NOAA are available to and useable by FAA systems.

2.2.2. CARATS (Japan)

CARATS was established in September 2010, to develop, maintain, and facilitate its implementation of long-term vision for future air transportation system until 2025, with a variety of members from government, industry, and academia. CARATS has its steering committee and working groups for detailed discussion in the relevant field, such as ATM, AIM, PBN, and MET (see figure 1).

CARATS have seven domain goals relating improvement of safety and efficiency (refer table1). In order to establish it, CARATS has number of task for renovation of ATS systems, such as implementation of trajectory based operation (TBO), enhancement of performance based navigation (PBN).

CARATS have identified eight directions for renovation of ATS system, such as TBO, improved predictability, PBN, Satellite Navigation, improved situation-awareness, maximized human and instrument capability, information sharing and CDM, high density operation in/around congestive aerodromes/air space. Advanced MET information and services are considered as one of the essential enablers for such improvement.

In the CARATS meteorology WG, below items have been discussed. Many of these items are expected to be implemented some time in near future, while in nature it depends on the groups’ discussion. And some items have been implemented so far.

*Sharing MET information via SWIM, including IWXXM

*Meteorological Database

*Improved observations, including Himawari-8 products

*Improved forecasts, including high-resolution NWP, probabilistic forecast and aircraft *observation assimilation

*MET Integration to ATM decision making support system

*Utilization of aircraft observation data via data link

Figure 1. Structure of CARATS

Table 1. Domain goals of CARATS

Presentation about CARATS as of May 2017.

[Back to top CARATS]

2.2.3. SESAR (Europe)

SESAR is one of the largest programs in the world for ATM modernization. Its acronym stands for ‘Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research’. It was set up in 2004 to modernize and harmonize ATM systems through the definition, development and deployment of innovative technological and operational solutions with the aim of implementing the Single European Sky regulation package from a technological point of view. After a first 9-year research and development phase (SESAR1), the program has been conducting a deployment phase aiming at implementing technological solutions validated in SESAR1, in parallel to a second R&D phase called SESAR2020. These three parts of the program are presented in the following paragraphs.

2.2.3.1. SESAR1

2.2.4. Others

2.2.4.1. CMATS project ‘One Sky’ (Australia)

CMATS (Civil-Military ATM System, Australia) had been initiated in 2015 as a successor to TAAATS. By 2021 CMATS was intended to deliver the most advanced integrated (civil-military) air traffic control system unified under ‘One Sky’ for Australia. The implementation phase was expected to begin in 2018, providing new levels of operational and cost efficiency and improved safety through a shared situational awareness for civil and military controllers, use of common data, new safety nets and alerts, and greater information security. From a MET perspective, it was highlighted that the Bureau of Meteorology was an embedded part of a CMATS center in Canberra.

Presentation about CMATS as of May 2017.

2.2.4.2. New Southern Sky (New Zealand)

New Southern Sky is the plan to modernise New Zealand’s airspace and air navigation system. It outlines the practical steps required to make an effective? ?transition to the use of next generation technologies, manage airspace as demand ?increases, and to enhance aviation safety and efficiency over ten years (from 2014).

Important aspects of the plan include improved efficiency of air traffic movements by transition to Performance Based Navigation (PBN), and more accurate navigation and reduced reliance on ageing ground based systems by transition to ADS-B technology. These and other changes will be supported by enhancements to aeronautical information systems. Remaining paper-based aeronautical information will ?be ?incorporated into digital systems that can also i?ntegrate weather data, which will be supplied in the IWXXM format. It is aimed to have aeronautical and weather information available in real time to all participants in the system - on the ground and in the air.

[Back to top Air Traffic Management]

2.3. MET information integration into decision support systems

The ICAO Concept document for the Integration of Meteorological Information for ATM (see also §2.1.3) provides guidance to better understand Meteorological (MET) information integration considerations, assists in identifying the type and level of MET support required for Air Traffic Management as identified by the Global Air Traffic Management Operational Concept, and forms a baseline to develop the required provisions. This baseline should enable the members of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) community to consider the types and quality of MET information services and the level of integration that is proportional to their specific needs.

Integration of information into airlines and ATM decision support systems requires interoperability in the context of the System Wide Information Management (SWIM). An integral part of the evolution of MET service provision is the development of information exchange standards that ensure this interoperability on a global scale This is not only required from a MET service provision perspective but needs to be interlinked with other identified data domains that are relevant for ATM. Decision support tools will not only use MET information but will fuse it with other relevant information such as Aeronautical Information (AIS/AIM) and Flight Information to support knowledge based decision making. This fusion of information will enable a common picture to be made available to all partners in the ATM system to improve safety, traffic predictability and operational flexibility.

Several initiatives or projects promoting the integration of MET information into airlines or ATM decision-aid systems and fusion with other relevant information have been launched in those parts of the globe where air traffic growth has been very rapid. In most of them, meteorological service providers supporting with data provision and with expertise on MET information have been involved. Three examples of initiatives for integration of Met information into decision support systems are presented in the following paragraphs.

2.3.1. ALWIN (Japan)

An example of ground-cockpit CDM/Low-altitude wind information sent to approaching aircraft

2.3.2. TOPLINK (Europe)

The TOPLINK project was launched in 2014, as part of the SESAR (see 2.2.3) Large Scale Demonstration Activities program. This project aimed at demonstrating the benefits for ATM stakeholders (ANSPs, Airlines, General Aviation, Airport operators) of the deployment of new System Wide Information Services, including Meteorological Services, Aeronautical Information Services, cooperative Network Services, and Flight Information services (for their non-safety critical aspects).

Through the development and deployment of a dedicated platform and the execution of more than ten trials as part as demonstration exercises the project has demonstrated, based on an end-to-end supporting infrastructure, how Air Traffic Flow Management controllers, airport operators, commercial airlines staff (ground flight dispatchers, as well as pilots), and General Aviation (ground fleet managers, as well as pilots) could improve their operational performance, especially in terms of safety, efficiency and capacity by the use of those Information Services. Benefits of tight interaction between ground personnel and flight crews in pre-tactical, pro-active decision-making were also demonstrated.

Finally the project clearly demonstrated the high added value of combining weather information (MET), aeronautical information (AIM) and flight information to support strategic & pre-tactical decisions.

Learn more about the TOPLINK project here.

2.3.3. Nextgen Weather Processor (U.S.)

The NextGen Weather Processor (NWP) is one of the components of the architecture developed by the FAA to provide specific, consistent products and services to operators and air traffic management (see also para 2.2.1 about NextGen). The NWP ingests information from numerous observation platforms and numerical forecast models, provides a consistent weather picture from the sources, and translates that weather picture into airspace constraints for integration into air traffic decision-making.

NextGen Weather Processor (NWP) identifies terminal and en route safety hazards, and provides translated weather information needed to predict route blockage and airspace capacity constraints up to eight hours in advance. It combines information from weather radars, environmental satellites, lightning, meteorological observations (from surface stations and aircraft), and NOAA numerical forecast model output to generate improved products.

The FAA National Airspace System (NAS) relies then on the component called Common Support Services – Wx to make available both NOAA and FAA weather products from NWP for integration into air traffic decision support tools, using SWIM-compliant dissemination services.

[Back to top Met Information Integration]

[Back to top Use Cases]

3. Summary

According to significant and continuous increase of air traffic, management of air traffic flow against adverse condition has become a biggest issue. Weather is one last “unpredictable” piece which has large impact

Challenges are still remaining….

Verification and validation technic
MET impact assessment methodology
Functional requirement may depend on operational circumstances in each airspace/terminal. Requirements for service sin the terminal area are needed, though.
Sharing best practices will lead to facilitation of MET/ATM implementation. Development of global/regional requirement is now desired.

July 2018

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Education & Training

The CAeM in collaboration with the UK Met Office established a special Education and Training Website https://aviation.wmo.int/moodle which contains the following modules:
- Meteorology
- Quality Management and Cost Recovery
- Regulatory and Reference Material
- Conferences, Seminars and Workshops
- Competency assessment forum
Training material and guidance related to implementation of competency standards:
- Competencies: 7 steps towards conformance
- Competency Toolkit (Secondary Level AMP Competence Description and related Criteria)
Miscelaneous training web links:
- The COMET Programme has instructional designers, author-programmers, staff meteorologists, graphic designers, and animators who produce computer-based training modules and related learning materials.
- Hong Kong Observatory - Windshear and Turbulence Information
- ISO 9001:2008 material