Aeronautical Meteorology Webinar 2025

Event Highlights

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Volcanic Hazard Services

Next generation volcanic ash information for aviation safety

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Hazardous Weather

Sand dust monitoring, low visibility, and significant convection, etc., warning and forecast practices for aviation hazardous weather

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Aerodrome Nowcasting

Latest developments and practices in aerodrome weather forecasting and aviation weather services

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Cross-Regional

Collaboration between RA II and RA V regions

About the Webinar

The WMO Regional Association II (Asia) Aeronautical Meteorology Webinar 2025 is organized by the RA II Expert Team on Services for Aviation (ET-AVI) under the RA II Working Group on Weather, Climate, Water and Related Environmental Services and Applications (WG Services).

This webinar responds to training needs identified in the QMS survey and EC-78 Resolution 7, focusing on aviation hazardous weather including volcanic ash, sand dust, significant convection, and low visibility.

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Target Audience

• Aerodrome Meteorological Office Managers
• Meteorological Watch Offices Managers
• Aeronautical Meteorological Service Managers
• Aviation meteorology personnel

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Key Objectives

• Introduce next-gen volcanic hazard services
• Share warning practices for aviation hazards
• Exchange aerodrome nowcasting developments
• Present latest aviation weather services

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Important Dates

• Registration Deadline: 17 June 2025
• Webinar Date: 24 June 2025
• Time: 06:00 - 09:00 UTC

Event Schedule

Time (UTC)	Session	Speaker	Affiliation
06:00-06:10	Opening and Introduction	CL Ms Christy Leung	Hong Kong Observatory (HKO)
06:10-06:25	Latest development in volcanic ash information for aviation	NA Mr Nishijo Akira	VAAC Tokyo, Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)
06:25-06:40	Volcanic ash monitoring and collaborative decision making in airport	RP Ms Resa Pratikasari	Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (BMKG)
06:40-06:55	Sand dust monitoring and forecast in Northeast Asia	HC Ms Hua Cong	RSMC-ASDG Beijing, China Meteorological Administration (CMA)
06:55-07:10	Sand dust monitoring and forecast for aviation applications	HL Mr Han Lei	Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC)
07:10-07:20	Break	-	-
07:20-07:35	Low visibility monitoring and forecast in the Middle East	AK Mr Amer Khalil	Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA)
07:35-07:50	Nowcasting in its context	RM Dr Rajeev Kumar Mehajan	Indian Air Force (IAF)
07:50-08:05	Aviation weather service in India	VD Dr V.R. Durai	India Meteorological Department (IMD)
08:05-08:20	Aerodrome nowcasting service in Hong Kong, China	CL Ms Christy Leung	Hong Kong Observatory (HKO)
08:20-08:50	Q&A / Discussion	JL Mr Jochen Luther	World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretariat
08:50-09:00	Closing and Conclusion	CL Ms Christy Leung	Hong Kong Observatory (HKO)

Note: For each timeslot, the last 3 minutes are reserved for Q&A.

Meet Our Speakers

Learn more about the aviation meteorology experts presenting at this webinar

Ms Christy Leung

Scientific Officer

Hong Kong Observatory (HKO)

Christy Leung is a meteorologist with rich experience in weather forecasting, aviation weather, weather data analytics and model post-processing. Christy obtained her Bachelor of Science in Physics and Astronomy at The University of Hong Kong and pursued her Master of Science in Applied Meteorology at The University of Reading. She worked as a professional meteorologist in the Hong Kong Observatory for over 10 years, performing duties as weather forecaster and weather presenter occasionally. In recent years, Christy worked under the International Aviation Meteorological Collaboration division specializing in aeronautical meteorological forecasting, regional aviation collaboration and MET-ATM applications.

Presenting Topics

Opening & Introduction, Aerodrome Nowcasting Service in Hong Kong

Mr Nishijo Akira

Scientific Officer

VAAC Tokyo, Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)

Akira NISHIJO is a scientific officer of Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and a staff of the Tokyo Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC). He engages in the international work of VAAC, mainly through the International Airways Volcano Watch (IAVW) community of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Akira is also involved in the development of an eruption column model, and dispersion model for new QVA information, utilizing his expertise on the dynamics of volcanic plume.

Presenting Topic

Latest Development in Volcanic Ash Information for Aviation

Ms Resa Pratikasari

Aviation Meteorologist

Badan Meteorologi, Klimatologi, dan Geofisika (BMKG)

Resa is an officer at the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics (BMKG). She earned her bachelor’s degree from Bogor Agricultural Institute and her master’s degree from the Bandung Institute of Technology. Resa has worked in aviation meteorology for ten years. At BMKG, she is responsible for coordinating with aviation stakeholders, including in areas related to volcanic ash impact on flight operations.

Presenting Topic

Volcanic Ash Monitoring and Collaborative Decision Making in Airport

Ms Hua Cong

Sand Dust Monitoring Specialist

RSMC-ASDG Beijing, China Meteorological Administration (CMA)

Hua Cong is an environmental meteorologist specializing in atmospheric pollution and dust storm forecasting. She holds a Master's degree in Atmospheric Physics from the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences and has over ten years of work experience at the National Meteorological Center. Her expertise lies in short-term weather forecasting and environmental meteorology. In recent years, she has focused her efforts on promoting the development of the RSMC-ASDF and meteorological services related to desertification prevention. She has also contributed to the establishment of CMA's EW4ALL platform.

Presenting Topic

Sand Dust Monitoring and Forecast in Northeast Asia

Mr Han Lei

Aviation Weather Services Manager

Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC)

Han Lei graduated from Nanjing Institute of Meteorology in 2004 with a Masters Degree in Meteorology. He is presently in-charge of the Safety and Technology Office of the Meteorological Center in the Civil Aviation Administration of China, with over 10 years in this position. Prior to this, he was an aviation weather forecaster from 2004 to 2014 at the Xinjiang Air Traffic Management Bureau

Presenting Topic

Sand Dust Monitoring and Forecast for Aviation Applications

Mr Amer Khalil

Expert Weather Forecaster

Qatar Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA)

Amer Mahmoud Amer Khalil is an experienced Weather Forecaster currently working at the Qatar Meteorological Department (QMD) since 2022. Prior to this, he served at the Jordan Meteorological Department (JMD) from 2001 to 2022, initially as a Met. Observer and then as a Weather Forecaster.

Presenting Topic

Low Visibility Monitoring and Forecast in the Middle East

Dr Rajeev Kumar Mehajan

Senior Meteorologist

Indian Air Force (IAF)

During a decorated career of 40 years in nine organisations, including the United Nations (UN), the Indian Air Force (IAF), Ministry of Earth Sciences, India Meteorological Department and Anusandhan National Research Foundation at DST, Dr Rajeev Mehajan has served at apex levels, and been a driving force in game-changing initiatives that transformed the country’s profile and capabilities. His remarkable contributions in Meteorology have been awarded by the IAF, UN, WMO and recently been acknowledged by the Hon’ble Prime Minister and President of India.. Rajeev is the only expert from India on Renewable Energy for Climate Services at WMO as one of the 15 Global Members in the group. He has a doctorate degree in Meteorology and four master degrees each in ‘Mathematics’, ‘Meteorology’, ‘Defence Strategy’ and ‘Business Administration’. Beyond work, his passion for marathons, and cycling fuels his drive even today as a senior citizen.

Presenting Topic

Nowcasting in its Context

Dr V.R. Durai

Director, Aviation Meteorology

India Meteorological Department (IMD)

Dr V. R. Durai is a senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) with over 20 years of experience in numerical weather prediction, aviation forecasting, weather data analytics, and model post-processing. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Physics from Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, and a Ph.D. from Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi, with a thesis on multimodel ensemble prediction systems. At IMD, he has played a key role in implementing GFS, GEFS, and GDAS on High Performance Computing Systems and has contributed to district-level MME-based forecasts for Agro-Meteorological Advisory Services. He has served as Head of the Meteorological Watch Office, Chennai, and currently leads efforts in applying machine learning/AI to weather forecasting. Dr. Durai has published around 40 research papers and 20 scientific reports in atmospheric sciences.

Presenting Topic

Aviation Weather Service in India

Registration

Thank you to all registered participants and attendees!

Q&A from the Webinar

Find responses to questions from the webinar

Why do VAACs not use autonomous drones to support the identification of volcanic activities and direction of volcanic ash?

In general, VAACs do not have the capability to observe volcanoes directly. It is typically up to the national met service or relevant agency to deploy the drones (if any) for local monitoring. While VAAC Tokyo does not deploy drones, it is an interesting consideration for JMA.

Has there been any discussion on the requirement of SO2 information for the aviation committee within VAACs?

While the aviation community is also interested in SO2 information, they are currently focused on QVA. IAVW has, since the last meeting, paused the discussion on SO2.

Amonth the methods used in satellite-based detection of volcanic ash clouds - namely thermal infrared channels, brightness temperature difference (TBD) technique, and RGB composite imagery - which method is considered more effective for operational use, and why? ?

Depending on the situation; if available, RGB composite is able to quite clearly distinguish volcanic ash and meteorological cloud. Infrared channel is useful in the night when the visible channel is not available. Operators should check all channels so as to not miss volcanic ash

How does the evaluation result of volcanic ash distribution from QVA compare to observations?

Tokyo VAAC compares its QVA forecast samples with the ash mass-loading on past actual events. QVA forecast works quite well in some cases but not always. There are large uncertainties in both QVA parameterization and ash mass-loading obtained from satellite analysis. The VAAC community is also seeking a common verification method for VAA and QVA.

How do you determine the height of a volcanic ash column when there is no height checkpoint?

Plume height is mainly estimated by the brightness temperature of the cloud. Reports from observations and pilots are also important sources.

What is the update frequency for VAAC when a volcanic eruption occurs?

At least every 6 hours.

Is there any possibility for non-VAACs to use QVA method, or QVA modelling tools? For example, in analytical use in volcanic research.

THere are no plans at this stage but some institutes may publish a paper or document on QVA methods. QVA data for actual events are available in a similar way as VAA.

Can the dust model used by RSMC-ASDG Beijing be used for the distribution of radioactive clouds?

The dust model is trained on dust observations and so, may not be applicable to radioactive clouds.

Can the dust model forecast used by RSMC-ASDG Beijing be used in Central and South Asia?

Yes, the dust model is transferable to other parts of the world.

Is there a collaboration between Qatar and KSA dust storm center to support the forecasters and aeronautical operations?

Yes as both are in a similar region in the Middle East and the transboundary nature of sand and dust storms.

How does HKO issue low-level wind shear warnings?

HKO uses the doppler radar for monitoring wind shear conditions during microbursts and the LIDAR for clear air conditions. When large changes in the headwinds are detected, an automatic alert is issued.

How does HKO deal with wind direction/wind speed/wind gust forecast in terms of nowcasting? It was mentioned that there is work done in using ML for observed wind data using XBoost. In the process, does the nowcasting product output directly provide wind nowcast or do HKO forecasters have to derive it based on dBz movement or optical flow?

The deep-learning model uses observed data for the nowcasting of westerly sea breezes only, as the prevailing wind condition in Hong Kong is easterly. For changes in prevailing wind conditions, airport operations are affected. Therefore, the nowcasting product is used primarily for the nowcasting of wind changes. The output produces a probability of wind change.