Aviation

eGAFOR Integration into SkyDemon

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eGAFOR (enhanced, electronic and European GAFOR) is a new graphical colour-coded forecast for general aviation (GA). It was developed by CCL (Croatia – the initiator and leading partner), ARSO (Slovenia), BHANSA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), OMSZ (Hungary), ROMATSA (Romania), SHMU (Slovakia) and SMATSA (Serbia and Montenegro) with Slovakian IBL as an industrial partner within the framework of an EU-funded project that was carried out between 2017 and 2021. Towards the end of the project, partners looked at how best to operationally issue eGAFOR once the project was over. This was difficult as there were multiple problems ranging from the procurement to the recognition of this new type of forecast by the aviation and meteorological community. The solution was found under the umbrella of EUMETNET and it was decided that the operational production and further development of eGAFOR products should continue as part of EUMETNET’s Aviation Support Programme (ASP). The participation in the ASP will also facilitate new members joining eGAFOR as there has already been interest from other aviation service providers.

General aviation is the most vulnerable part of aviation because it operates in the lower part of the atmosphere where the most hazardous meteorological phenomena occur. Although many GA pilots are experienced, there is a large number of less experienced pilots flying light aircraft without sufficient meteorological awareness. In addition to this, meteorological products for GA in Europe differ between the areas covered, timeframes, visualization and forecasting methods. However, the biggest issue is that they are not harmonized between neighbouring countries. Due to this lack of coordination in forecasts, meteorological phenomena can  seem to end at political borders, and this incongruity can reduce users´ confidence.

All of the above-mentioned reasons contributed to weather-related GA accidents with 392 fatalities over the past 10 years in Europe ( https://www.easa.europa.eu/newsroom-and-events/events/general-aviation-and-low-level-weather-seminar, the introductory presentation)

eGAFOR  is roughly based on traditional GAFOR (General Aviation FORecast), but with several improvements. Firstly, it is produced simultaneously and collaboratively in multiple countries, so users can see the forecast for a wider area on a single platform.  Before eGAFOR, when users were preparing a cross-border flight, they had to visit multiple web pages to collect meteorological data.

In addition, whilst traditional GAFOR is a deterministic forecast based on two meteorological elements, low clouds and visibility, eGAFOR is a probabilistic forecast of five elements (clouds, visibility, cumulonimbus clouds, turbulence and freezing precipitation). On top of this, eGAFOR is an interactive webpage accessible via www.egafor.eu, whilst traditional GAFOR is intended for printing.

Figure 1 eGAFOR forecast on www.egafor.eu webpage

SkyDemon is one of the best VFR (Visual Flight Rules) flight-planning and navigation software in the world, made by Divelements Limited, an independent software company based in the UK. SkyDemon was launched in 2009 and has been developing and advancing ever since.

The SkyDemon team recognized the problem of obtaining meteorological data for cross-border flights and therefore one of the features SkyDemon offers is meteorological data integrated into VFR planning charts. For that reason, SkyDemon integrated traditional GAFOR over the countries that provided the forecasts. Since the traditional GAFORs are produced per country, a lot of effort had to be invested in order to integrate different forecasts into a single one.

With the introduction of eGAFOR, SkyDemon took the opportunity to widen its network and to provide more meteorological data to end-users, general aviation pilots, to make their flight planning safer. However, since eGAFOR is in many aspects different from the traditional GAFOR, further development was required. There were various problems, different times of issuing, more forecasted phenomena, different visualization, to name a few. Once these problems were solved, eGAFOR was successfully integrated into SkyDemon:

Figure 2: Integration of eGAFOR into SkyDemon

Figure 3: An example of the integration of eGAFOR into SkyDemon: Austria is producing the traditional GAFOR, while Hungary is producing eGAFOR. Two different products are successfully harmonized.

This integration will help general aviation users in their cross-border flight planning between countries where eGAFOR is issued and countries where the traditional GAFOR remains

We hope this will benefit our end-users and make their flight planning easier, thus increasing their safety.

Further Information

Making of eGAFOR on YouTube

eGAFOR viewer

EUMETNET supports EUROCONTROL’s Network Manager with onsite meteorologists, aiding the Summer Cross Border Convection Advisory.

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This summer EUMETNET, along with 13 MET Service Providers, have continued to take part in the European Cross Border Convective Advisory procedure for EUROCONTROL’s Network Manager. This year EUMETNET is also deploying operational meteorologists from 6 of these MET ANSPs (Air Navigation Service Providers) to Network Managers Operations Centre, to support their network management activities. The intent is to understand the potential value and additional capability that onsite meteorologists can play in supporting the European Aviation Network.

The Advisories primary goal aims to increase EUROCONTROL’s Network Manager (NM) and participating ATC ANSP’s (Air Traffic Control Air Navigation Service Providers) awareness of potentially significant convection that could disrupt the European Aviation network within the next 12 to 36 hours, to support operational decision makers’ effective and efficient management of the network. However, this year, the cross-border weather procedure is also playing an important role in ensuring that the recovery from COVID-19 is as delay free as possible. 

Cumulonimbus (CB) clouds are the main meteorological phenomena that this forecast focuses on, primarily as CB clouds can be used as a proxy for possible ‘weather avoidance’. Weather avoidance is the unplanned movement or deviation from the original flight plan requested at short notice by pilots as a result of ‘weather’ ahead. The reason that pilots would want to avoid these cloud types is due to the hazardous conditions associated within them (e.g. severe turbulence, downdraughts, icing and lightning) and the resultant comfort and safety implication for crew and passengers. Multiple avoidance requests will lead to additional workload and complexity for air traffic controllers, who may then be unable to safely handle the ‘normal’ amount of traffic, and capacity of the airspace is affected, resulting in diversions and delays of flights. 

The operational meteorologists, who will be deployed in July and August, will continue to produce the Cross Border Advisory. However they will also liaise directly with the staff at NM to provide a holistic assessment of the weather conditions affecting Europe on a day to day basis and also to learn more about the tasks that NM undertake and where they may have opportunities for additional weather support within their operations.

The first meteorologist on site is Pauline Jaunet from Meteo France, she said “It is a pleasure to directly interact with NM operational staff and assist them with better tailored weather forecasts. To promote the use of weather information to better manage the airspace and reduce the risks of disruption is a great opportunity to better understand the impacts the disruptive weather has on the aviation network.”

Iacopo Prissinotti, Director Network Management, EUROCONTROL said “On behalf of the EUROCONTROL Network Manager team I am delighted to welcome MET experts to NM’s operational centre this summer. Mitigating the effects of bad weather on air traffic and ensuring efficient and more sustainable operations is a key priority for us as we strive to deliver the best service to operational stakeholders in Europe. This trial is the latest in a series of NM initiatives in recent years to take a network-minded approach to bad weather with operational stakeholders: with these activities we aim to provide maximum situational awareness for all users when significant adverse weather conditions are identified that could affect multiple sectors.” 

Through the relationship that is developing between EUROCONTROL and EUMETNET, the participating MET ANSPs can together help provide advisory forecasts that are consistent within each state but also are effectively communicated to other airspace users regarding the impacts of convective weather so that they can plan for the disruption that may be caused, resulting in fewer delays and happier passengers.

 1 AEMET (Spain), ARSO (Slovenia), AustroControl, Croatia Control (CCL), DWD (Germany), Italian Air Force, KNMI (Netherlands), Met Office (UK), Meteo France, Meteo Swiss, OMSZ (Hungary), SHMU (Slovakia) and Skeyes (Belgium)
2 AustroControl, Croatia Control (CCL), DWD (Germany), Met Office (UK), Meteo France and Skeyes (Belgium)

Free webinar by EUMETNET & SESAR Deployment Manager

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Free webinar on “New Pan-European Weather Information to Support Aviation” held on 29th October.

To register and for further information please click here

 

Collaborative Forecasting for Aviation in Europe

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Once again, this year, Operational Meteorologists at 12 national MET Providers will be taking part in the European Cross Border Weather Advisory procedure for EUROCONTROL Network Manager. The EUMETNET members producing the daily forecast output provides clear, and internationally consistent, information regarding the severity and probability of convective weather across the forecast domain; which has expanded further for 2020 and encompasses some of the busiest routes and sectors in Europe.

The procedure’s primary goal aims to increase EUROCONTROL Network Manager’s (NM) and participating ANSP’s (Airspace Navigation Providers) awareness of potentially significant convection that could disrupt the European Aviation network within the next 12 to 36 hours to support operational decision makers’ effective and efficient management of the network. However, this year, the cross-border weather procedure will also play an important role in ensuring that the recovery from COVID-19 is as delay free as possible. Traditionally weather is one of the major causes of capacity reduction across wide areas of the aviation network, so a collaborative approach to weather management will be vital to ensure its impact is reduced as much as possible as air traffic begins to increase.

Cumulonimbus (CB) clouds are the main meteorological phenomena that this forecast focuses on, primarily as CB clouds can be used as a proxy for possible ‘weather avoidance’. Weather avoidance is the unplanned movement or deviation off the original flight plan requested at short notice by pilots as a result of ‘weather’ ahead. The reason that pilots would want to avoid these cloud types is due to the hazardous conditions associated within them (e.g. severe turbulence, downdraughts, icing and lightning). Multiple avoidance requests will lead to additional workload and complexity for air traffic controllers, who are then unable to safely handle the ‘normal’ amount of traffic, and capacity of the airspace is affected. This ultimately can lead to the implementation of decisions and measures to help mitigate against this by ANSPs.

The service this year has a delayed start of 1 June (due to COVID-19) and will  run until to the end of September 2020.

Example of a forecast

Forecast domain

EUROCONTROL’s Network Manager

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The European aviation industry is highly susceptible to the impacts of weather. EUMETNET’s members are coordinating on a collaborative planning forecast for EUROCONTROL’s Network Manager to try and mitigate some of the impacts that convective weather can have on the European Network.

One of the challenges faced by air traffic controllers is that they only have awareness of air traffic in their state, there is no overarching network view of the traffic movements in Europe. The aim of Network Manager is to have a cross border view of the weather and air traffic flows and assist the air traffic organisation in the expanded domain to keep traffic moving, reducing delays and congestion.

Further information can be found on the EUROCONTROL website

Supporting SESAR Deployment

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EUMETNET Members participate in four SESAR Deployment Implementation Projects and supports the SESAR Deployment Manager.

For further information see the press release and the statement delivered on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/SESAR_DM/status/1143436112138002432

Current Activities

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AVIATION – CURRENT ACTIVITIES

AVIMET

The Working Group for Aviation Support was created by EUMETNET to address issues of common interest within the aeronautical meteorological (MET) domain.

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SESAR

The SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Resarch) programme is one of the most ambitious research and development projects launched by the EU. 

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Links

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Documents

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AVIATION LIBRARY