Outcomes of the Conjoint ICAO Meteorology Divisional and WMO Commission for Aeronautical Meteorology Meeting in 2014

The ICAO Meteorology Divisional Meeting was held in Montreal, Canada between 7 and 18 July 2014 conjointly with the Fifteenth Session of WMO Commission for Aeronautical Meteorology (CAeM).  The Conjoint Meeting is held every 8-12 years to discuss the future directions of aviation meteorological services.  The Conjoint meeting in 2014 was attended by 95 Member State Delegations and 7 Observer Delegations with a total of 311 delegates.

The theme of the meeting was centred around the "One Sky" concept relating to the Global Air Navigation Plan (GANP) and the meteorological component of the Aviation System Block Upgrade (ASBU) methodology.  The ASBU consists of a number of 5-year blocks up starting from 2013 to 2028 and onwards, each lasting 5 years, and there are modules relating to meteorology in the various blocks (Block 0 up to Block 3).  The meeting discussed the future developments of the aviation meteorological services within the ABSU framework.

A number of recommendations had been made during the Meteorology Divisional Meeting.  Here are some highlights of them:

• Considering the introduction of airborne participation in collaborative air traffic management processes and the benefits of expanding meteorological observations by aircraft, a meteorological module to be added under Block 2;

• A regional advisory system to be developed and implemented expeditiously for select en-route hazardous meteorological conditions for States where there are SIGMET-related deficiencies, in considering the users’ long-standing requirements;

• The requirements for space weather information services to be developed and further development of the WAFS and international airways volcano watch (IAVW), as well as information on the release of radioactive material into the atmosphere;

• The meteorological service for the terminal area to be included in Block 1 and subsequent blocks of ASBU, including the development of guidance on verification methodology;

• Concept of operations and roadmap on aeronautical meteorological information to support trajectory-based operation (TBO) to be finalized;

• Provisions to enable the inclusion of aeronautical meteorological information in the future system-wide information management (SWIM) environment to be developed and addresses issues such as identification of authoritative source, traceability of information, inclusion of aircraft-derived data, etc.;

• Annex 3 to be re-structured to include the specifications of the service requirements, and the means of complying with these requirements to be included in a newly developed PANS-MET, as part of Amendment 78 of Annex 3 (in 2018, in line with Block 1 of ASBU).

Draft report of the meeting could be found in the ICAO website:
http://www.icao.int/Meetings/METDIV14/Pages/YellowCoverReport.aspx