The Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Meteorology Group (METG/29) of the European Region Aviation Systems Planning Group (EASPG) was held at the ICAO EUR/NAT Office, Paris, France from 17 to 20 September 2019. The meeting reviewed implementation of Aviation System Block Upgrade (ASBU) Block 0 – AMET which indicated approximately 91% implementation in the EUR Region. Implementation of elements reviewed in this block included World Area Forecast System; volcanic ash events and exercises in the EUR/NAT Regions; SIGMET and AIRMET; and OPMET data requirements. Other topics reviewed included MET Support for Air Traffic Management; TAF verification methodologies; and MET deficiencies.
In accordance to Amendment 78 to Annex 3, as of November 2020, providing some weather information (METAR, SPECI, TAF, SIGMET, AIRMET, Space Weather Advisory Information, Tropical Cyclone Advisory and Volcanic Ash Advisory) in the ICAO Meteorological Information Exchange Model (IWXXM) format in addition to providing this information in Traditional Alphanumeric Code (TAC) would become a requirement. In this regard, implementation of ASBU Block 1 – AMET is approximately 20% in the EUR Region, but expected to be 100% by November 2020. To increase the awareness and State's capabilities to implement IWXXM, METG/29 was informed that the ICAO IWXXM Implementation Workshop would take place at ICAO Paris from 5 to 6 November 2019.
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The meeting also identified the need to investigate whether or not relevant meteorological watch offices should implement SIGMET on tropical cyclone in the EUR Region. Furthermore, the meeting noted the significant progress made for the creation of Regional OPMET Centre Moscow and proposed a list of steps supporting implementation (subject to EASPG approval). The meeting also proposed a method of disseminating space weather advisory information in the EUR Region (subject to EASPG approval). The meeting also proposed adding three new implementation tables (METAR and TAF availability, METAR and TAF timeliness and SIGMET availability and format) related to ASBU B0-AMET and one new implementation table (IWXXM availability) related to ASBU B1-AMET (subject to EASPG approval).
Lastly, the meeting identified the need to harmonize ICAO Annex 3 definition of Minimum Sector Altitude with that referenced in ICAO Annex 4 and ICAO Doc 8168 (subject to EASPG approval).
The Meeting was attended by a total of one-hundred and ten (110) participants from forty-five (45) States, and five (5) International Organizations.
