Eurocontrol Meteorological Information Management Activities

Eurocontrol Meteorological Information Management Activities

-1- / AIS-AIMSG/2-IP/2
/ AIS-AIMSG/2-IP/2
9/09//09

AERONAUTICAL INFORMATION SERVICES-AERONAUTICAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT STUDY GROUP (AIS-AIMSG)

SECOND MEETING

Montréal, 10 to 13 November 2009

Agenda Item / 14.2: / Consideration of the MET component

EUROCONTROL METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION

MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES

(Presented by Paul Bosman)

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 This information paper provides the members of the Aeronautical Information Services-Aeronautical Information Management Study Group (AIS-AIMSG) an insight in the EUROCONTROL activities in the domain of Meteorological Information Management (MET).

2. METEOROLOGICAL INFORMATION Exchange

2.1 Building on the generic IM and AIM philosophy, EUROCONTROL demonstrated a first public release of the Weather Information Exchange Model (WXXM) in May 2007. This WXXM is the “meteorological component” of the family of platform (technology) independent, harmonized and interoperable information exchange models designed to cover the information needs of ATM. This first (May 2007) release of the WXXM was a proof of concept for the exchange of a limited set of ICAO Annex 3 type of products. It covered a first demonstration of the exchange of Annex 3 defined OPMET messages by means of industry standards such as the Extensible Mark-up Language (XML).

2.2 In 2008, EUROCONTROL developed the Weather Exchange Conceptual Model (WXCM). The development of the WXCM was seen essential in providing a good conceptual and contextual overview to derive exchange and physical data/information models such as the WXXM. With the intent to better serve future ATM needs beyond the earlier tested Annex 3 scope of products whilst ensuring backward compatibility with existing systems and constructs.

2.3 The first release of the WXCM was developed in close cooperation with the stakeholders and builds on the standards of International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and on AIXM constructs. Based on the WXCM, a revised WXXM and a GML/XML schema, the Weather Information Exchange Schema (WXXS), were developed. These two models and the schema are the required suite of models to start to design proof of concepts in support of current and foreseen ATM services.

2.4 The current publicly available versions of the WXCM, WXXM and WXXS were published in November 2008. These versions 1.0.1 of the three models are now used in different proof of concepts and as the baseline for a harmonised EUROCONTROL and FAA activity to develop a consolidated version that could facilitate both the European and US ATM needs, today and in the near future. They are sufficiently modular to be easily expanded with emerging needs from SESAR and NextGen.

2.5 The new version 1.1 will become available before the end of 2009 and as such will be a prime candidate for adoption by the SESAR Work Package 8 community to be included in their Weather Information modelling activity. Detailed information on WXCM, WXXM and WXXS is available at the EUROCONTROL OneSky WXCM Team website; registration is required (

3. COORDINATION WITH WMO, ICAO, FAA and OGC

3.1 The development work on WXCM/WXXM/WXXS is fully coordinated with the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and ICAO. Representatives of WMO and ICAO regularly attend working group meetings and workshops on the subject, and vice versa, to have an optimal information exchange on aeronautical weather information modelling activities within the different settings. In this respect, EUROCONTROL participated in and offered further assistance to the different Expert Team initiatives of WMO on xml-based aeronautical weather information exchange.

3.2 Furthermore, as introduced in paragraph 2.4, EUROCONTROL and FAA reached an agreement on the future versions of the WXCM, WXXM and WXXS, which continue to be based on OGC standards and technologies for the core exchange of weather information in the ATM system. Within this context, both organisations supported the set-up of a specialised working group of OGC on Meteorology.

3.3 This OGC Domain Working Group (DWG) on Meteorology has been estbalished to ensure that OGC standards and profiles allow the meteorological community to develop effective interoperability for web services and content across the wider geospatial domain The aeronautical application of meteorology is a major contributor to this work. One of the important issues on the agenda is to ensure the appropriate coordination between OGC, ISO and WMO. OGC and ISO have a memorandum of cooperation in place; WMO and ISO have a similar sort of arrangement but it is deemed necessary to also have the appropriate level of coordination and harmonisation between WMO and OGC in place. Additional information on the OGC Meteorology DWG is available at:

4. MET Data Fusion Demonstrator

4.1 General context

4.1.1 The MET Data Fusion Demonstrator is the instantiation of a so-called SESAR Joint Undertaking (S-JU) WP8 Early Project. The project is an initial demonstration of how the geospatial and time enabled provision of meteorological information in the ATM System, as foreseen by the European ATM Master Plan, could be implemented by applying an open and transparent Meteorological Information Exchange Model based on Industry standards(i.e. WXXM).

4.1.2 The concepts, architecture and standards used for the collection, storage and exchange of meteorological information are an example of how to apply a Service Oriented Approach for the meteorological service provision domain in the future ATM System. For the demonstrator, existing open standards and best practices developed within the ISO and OGC, including WXXM and WXXS, were successfully used and are one option for the required move from proprietary ATM or MET specific services, interfaces and formats as foreseen by the European ATM Master Plan.

4.2 S-JU WP 8 background information

4.2.1 The objective of the Information Management Work Package (WP 8) is to establish the framework which defines seamless information interchange between all providers and users of shared ATM information, so as to enable the assembly of the best possible integrated 4D picture of the past, present and (planned) future state of the ATM situation. Consequently, WP 8 will integrate the ATM world in the information sense, a necessary step towards the realisation of a Service Oriented Approach.

4.2.2 In the ramp-up of WP 8, a series of early projects were launched and delivered that will support the execution of the description of work. For meteorological information in the context of WP 8 and in direct support of WP 8.1.6 (Information Models Development – Meteorological Domain); this early project was delivered in June 2009.

4.3 The full report on the WP 8.1.6 early project is made available as appendix A to this information paper.

5. action by the group

5.1 The AIS-AIMSG is invited to take note of the EUROCONTROL activities in the domain of Information Management (IM) and Meteorological Information Management (MET) in particular.

— — — — — — — —