VAAC London QVA API

QVA provision forms part of ICAO Annex 3, Amendment 82 which becomes effective in November 2025.

To access the VAAC London QVA API, users must:

1. Review the service summary. Find full details in the QVA API Licence Agreement and QVA API Standard terms and conditions.
2. Register your acceptance of the QVA User Licence Agreement, click here to access the form.
3. Email [email protected] to start the registration process.

The VAAC London QVA API is:

• SWIM compliant and conforms to the EUROCONTROL SWIM yellow Profile standards.
• Published in the EUROCONTROL SWIM Registry.
• Uses the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Environmental DATA Retrieval (EDR) API framework.
• For further information about this service, please click here to access the VAAC London QVA API User Guide

Who can use the VAAC London QVA API?

The service is provided free of charge for use by the aviation industry (operators, flight planning organisations), air navigation service providers, and national meteorological services and other providers who provide services to aviation.

Data Available on the VAAC London QVA API

The API contains:

Gridded data

• Deterministic ash concentration forecasts.
• Probability that the ash concentration will exceed 0.2g/m3, 2.0 g/m3 , 5.0 g/m3 , and 10mg/m3.

Data will be provided for 12 vertical levels from the surface to FL600 (60,000ft) in 5000ft thick layers and at a 0.25 degree horizontal resolution.

Ash Polygons

• Features/objects in IWXXM format that show where each of the four concentrations are expected to occur.

All data sets will be provided covering the period from T+0 hour to T+24 hours at 3-hourly intervals.

Click here for further information on the available QVA data