The Thirtieth-second Meeting of the Meteorology Group (METG/32) of the European Region Aviation System Planning Group (EASPG) was held at the ICAO EUR/NAT Regional Office in Paris from 20 to 23 September 2022.
The meeting noted that the implementation of Aviation System Block Upgrade (ASBU) elements AMET Block 0 increased from 90 to 93% this past year.
Furthermore, the implementation of the ICAO Meteorological Information Exchange Model (IWXXM) as part of ASBU elements AMET Block 1 was maintained at 98%, noting that this was in part due to translation services being provided by Regional OPMET Centres at no cost. The translation services may be extended for one more year; however, States are expected to implemented IWXXM on their own and preferably at source during the next year. Inter-regional exchange of IWXXM is expected to progress during the next year as well.
The meeting reviewed the progress made by the World Area Forecast Centres (WAFC) by improving the spatial and temporal resolution of gridded weather information to support trajectory based operations. States and SADIS (Secure Aviation Data Information Service) users were encouraged to integrate the 0.25 degree WAFS (World Area Forecast System) hazard data (cumulonimbus, icing and turbulence) into their systems and software prior to November 2023 when the legacy products will no longer be available. Furthermore, WAFS upgrades and SWIM-compliant delivery system are expected in the next 1-2 years and thus States and SADIS users encouraged to participate in trying out the SWIM-compliant SADIS APIs (Application Programming Interface) once the beta services are available. States and SADIS users were also encouraged to prepare their systems for visualizing and creating charts from the new WAFS SIGWX data sets in IWXXM format by using test data sets available.
Guidance material related to MET such as the EUR SIGMET and AIRMET Guide (EUR Doc 014) and the EUR OPMET Data Management Handbook (EUR Doc 018) were also updated to reflect regional best practices on the production of SIGMET and AIRMET as well as reflect best practices on the exchange of OPMET data and updating Regional OPMET Centre backup procedures.
The meeting agreed to establish an ad-hoc group to study wildfire smoke reporting in the EUR Region in the context of current practices and ICAO provisions. The meeting was attended by 81 experts from 36 States as well as 5 International Organizations.
METG/33 will be held from 19 to 22 September 2023 in Paris.
