FAQs - Aviation Briefing Service

Questions

1. What is the Aviation Briefing Service?
2. How do I access the Aviation Briefing Service for pilots?
3. How do I upgrade to Premium?
4. How much does it cost to upgrade and what will I get for my money?
5. How can I see a regional bulletin list of TAFs and METARs, and also be able to print them out?
6. Can I use the Aviation Briefing Service when I'm flying abroad? I go to international aviation events and want to be able to set my altimeter for whichever country I am in eg. USA?
7. How do I set my own map view?
8. How do I see balloon locations on a map?
9. Where are the mesoscale products in the Aviation Briefing Service platform?
10. What is the yellow envelope at the top of the product?
11. Why have you changed the appearance of the wind arrows and fletches?
12. Why has the map layer picker changed?
13. Why is the password requirement so specific?
14. Why are the colour states in military METARs different to those that are shown in the Aviation Briefing Service platform?
15. Please can you summarise how the wind gust values, in the ballooning forecast, are derived?
16. When does the model data update on the Aviation Briefing Service platform?
17. Why have you removed the 3-day planner from the new Premium version of the Aviation Briefing Service?
18. What are the wind/temperature profile validity and issue times? (Applies to ballooning only)
19. What are the text forecast validity and issue times? (Applies to ballooning only)
20. Summary of site-specific data available to balloonists
21. When are the map layers and model data updated?
22. Mobile devices

Please note: More FAQs will be added on a regular basis.

Answers

1. What is the Aviation Briefing Service?

The Aviation Briefing Service is the new name for the General Aviation (GA) service. The Aviation Briefing Service is the Met Office online portal available via secure login, which provides extensive pre-flight weather information to pilots to support flight safety.

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2. How do I access the Aviation Briefing Service for pilots?

Create an account here to gain access to the free service. You will need to register a username and password.

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3. How do I upgrade to Premium?

Once you have registered for the free version of the Aviation Briefing Service and have a username and password, you can upgrade to premium and pay online with your credit card here. Subscription is for one year and we will remind you to renew one month before it expires.

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4. How much does it cost to upgrade and what will I get for my money?

It costs £57.60 inc. VAT per year to upgrade your subscription. The Premium version contains additional products. Read Aviation Briefing Service - Guidance for a comparison between the free version and Premium.

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5. How can I see a regional bulletin list of TAFs and METARs, and also be able to print them out?

All of the TAFs and METARs can now be accessed from the top menu on the home page. From here you can select to see preset regional lists, or to create your own list of favourites. In order to print your list, please use the printing functionality in your browser. We have optimised the print settings to ensure that the lists print out as economically as possible, and that the preset METAR lists will print on a single side of A4 paper.

If you wish to search for your own locations you need to know the ICAO codes. In the global search box enter the ICAOs for the locations you are interested in separated by a space or a comma. Unfortunately we are unable to guarantee that our database will be able to provide data for every location in the world.

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6. Can I use the Aviation Briefing Service when I'm flying abroad? I go to international aviation events and want to be able to set my altimeter for whichever country I am in eg. USA?

The Aviation Briefing Service platform is primarily designed to support UK Aviators flying from the UK. It allows access to some European weather data and should be used in conjunction with the services provided by the local regulated provider. We have now added in access to global TAFs and METARs in the TAFs and METARs menu.

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7. How do I set my own map view?

Within the map layer picker there is an option to save up to 10 of your favourite map views. This means that you can save the map view you use most frequently instead of a full map. This functionality does not enable you to save a map view with open layers on it.

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8. How do I see balloon locations on a map?

Use the top menu selector on the home page to see balloon and aerodrome content. Select "Balloon locations" to search for site specific ballooning forecast information, or to view the regional ballooning charts. In the "Settings" then "Preferences" menu we have given you the option to make the balloon locations page your preferred landing page when logging into the Aviation Briefing Service. Please note this does not stop you from accessing the Aerodromes pages.

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9. Where are the mesoscale products in the Aviation Briefing Service platform?

These products are in the premium version of the product only. We have changed the map layer selector to enable map functionality on a mobile phone. We have also attempted to make the selecting of map layers easier and more intuitive than before. To find the forecast (mesoscale) map layers: open the map layer selector, and select "FORECAST PRECIPITATION" or FORECAST VISIBILITY & CLOUD" and then make your choice. The original "mesoscale" layer from the old GA platform is called "Cloud fog and precipitation" and is in the Forecast precipitation category.

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10. What is the yellow envelope at the top of the product?

This is for notifications which you should read. We use this functionality to issue notices about changes to the product you ought to know about, or when we are investigating a problem for example. The envelope goes white after you have read the notices.

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11. Why have you changed the appearance of the wind arrows and fletches?

Customers had fed back that they found them to be cluttered and when shown with temperature in particular, difficult to read. We have decluttered them and coloured them in order to more clearly differentiate the wind speeds.

Wind fletches are colour coded according to their speed (see the key on the map for further information). Wind arrows are also colour coded - they are black when the wind speed is below 15kt and red when they are more than 15kt. You may notice occasions where there are both black and red arrows showing 15kt. This is due to the rounding of data and will show whether the wind speed is slightly higher or lower than 15kt.

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12. Why has the map layer picker changed?

It was necessary to make significant changes to the map to enable it to be used on mobile devices, and we took the opportunity to re-order the map layers to make them more intuitive and to make it easier to find the information you require.

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13. Why is the password requirement so specific?

Our web delivery platform, which serves not just public content but also commercial services, aims to provide the key security principles of:

• Confidentiality - the ability to hide information from those people unauthorised to see it.
• Integrity - the ability to ensure the data is an accurate and unchanged representation of the original secure information.
• Availability - the ability to ensure the information concerned is readily available to the authorised user.

Having a strong password policy is one of many mechanisms by which the Met Office provides the above principles and enables us to protect not only the users of our services but also the services themselves.

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14. Why are the colour states in military METARs different to those that are shown in the Aviation Briefing Service platform?

Military METAR reports also display a colour state - BLU, WHT, GRN, YLO1, YLO2, AMB or RED according to cloud base and visibility. These thresholds are different to the colours used to display the observations in the Aviation Briefing Service. BLACK indicates the runway is unusable.

A summary of the differences is shown in the table below:

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15. Please can you summarise how the wind gust values, in the ballooning forecast, are derived?

The wind gust values used in the ballooning forecast are calculated from a high resolution model and should give a good guide to gusts in the type of light wind conditions that balloonists are interested in. However there are a few things to be aware of:

• When the mean wind speed is greater than 15kts the gust speeds shown tend to be higher than is realistic. Please note that where you see gust speeds elsewhere on Met Office products they calculate gust speeds in a different way, which gives more accurate values at higher mean wind speeds. (It is recognised that balloons do not normally fly when the surface mean wind speed is greater than 15 kts; the forecast model chosen should give a good guide to gusts when mean wind speed is below 15 kts.)
• The high resolution model used to calculate the gust speeds uses a modelling methodology called ‘Best Data’. Best Data is used to forecast the most likely meteorological conditions for a particular location and at specific times, including gusts, showers and other elements. The gusts forecasts provided are therefore influenced by the other meteorological parameters also being forecast for that same time/location. For example, if a forecast for Bath at 1400 coincides with a forecast shower at that time and location, the gust from the associated downdraught would be presented in the forecast. If however that shower did not materialise (or occurred just a few kilometres away), the actual gustiness at the balloon location at that time would likely be lower than forecast.  
• Please be aware that showers/thunderstorms may not always form in the exact location shown in the forecast, and the potential for these stronger gusts will move with it. Whilst appreciating the weather sensitivity of balloons, given the inherent uncertainties of site specific forecasting, it is therefore important to recognise the value of airmanship and observation when planning, to account for these uncertainties.

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16. When does the model data update on the Aviation Briefing Service platform?

• For the forecast "wind and temperature" type layers (in 3-hourly timesteps) it is supplied by a model that runs at 6-hourly intervals. This means that the forecast data shown will update at approx 04:00UTC, 09:30UTC 16:00UTC, and 21:30UTC.
• For the other forecast map layers (e.g. forecast precipitation rate/type, visibility, and the cloud layers) the first 5 or 6 hours of the forecast is updated every hour. For the timesteps that follow this the model data is updated every 3 hours, and will update at approx 02:30UTC, 05:30UTC, 08:30UTC, 11:30UTC. 14:30UTC, 17:30UTC. 20:30UTC, 23:30UTC.

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17. Why have you removed the 3-day planner from the new Premium version of the Aviation Briefing Service?

The decision to remove this from the new product was based on usage analytics. This was a forecaster-created product and based on usage, it was not cost-effective to maintain. We hope that by extending the time steps of some of the layers you will still be able to access the information this product provided.

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18. What are the wind/temperature profile validity and issue times? (Applies to ballooning only)

The graphics are valid for 0600 and 1800 UTC between 15 March and 30 September and for 0900 and 1500 between 1 October and 14 March.

Both will be updated around 0230, 0830, 1430 and 2030 UTC.

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19. What are the text forecast validity and issue times? (Applies to ballooning only)

• All times are UTC
• Updated forecasts will be displayed shortly after the time of issue

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20. Summary of site-specific data available to balloonists

The following table describes the forecasts that balloonists are able to view at any given time.

• All times are UTC
• Updated forecasts will be displayed shortly after the time of issue

Examples:

1. at 0830, the full current AM and PM forecasts will be issued, along with site specific model data for following morning’
2. by 2030, the full current PM and tomorrow’s AM forecasts will be issued, along with site specific model data for tomorrow afternoon.

‘Full forecast’ contain all site specific model and forecaster data

‘Data only’ contains just site specific model data

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21. When are the map layers and model data updated?

Please note:

• The data shown on the map will auto-refresh every 5 minutes from the time you load the map. On each auto-refresh, the Aviation Briefing Service platform will check whether new model data has come in, and if appropriate it will update the map layers with the new data.
• The time at which model data comes in day-to-day can vary slightly.
• The data shown on the map will auto-refresh every 5 minutes from the time you load the map. On each auto-refresh, the Aviation Briefing Service platform will check whether new model data has come in, and if appropriate it will update the map layers with the new data.

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22. Mobile devices

Please note:

• The map feature works best in portrait mode on mobile devices
• On iOS devices, the Aviation Briefing Service platform works best when private browsing mode is NOT used

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