IWXXM METAR-SPECI Subscription and Request Service

The IWXXM METAR-SPECI Subscription and Request Service provides the service consumer with METAR/SPECI report(s) for one or more aerodromes of a State as it becomes available.

The service consumer can subscribe to the service, specifying the aerodrome of interest, and receive information as it becomes available.

It is also possible to send a direct request, using a request-reply mechanism, to the service to get the relevant meteorological information.

The meteorological information is issued by the designated Aeronautical Meteorological Station. The meteorological information is only intended to be used by service consumers within the aviation domain.

EUROCONTROL

EUROCONTROL is an intergovernmental organisation with 41 Member and 2 Comprehensive Agreement States.

swim@eurocontrol.int

The service shall make METAR/SPECI report(s) available for one or more aerodrome(s) within a State.

Note: it is expected that a single service will be implemented per State, covering all of the aerodromes within the State.

regulated information exchange

METEOROLOGICAL_INFORMATION_EXCHANGE

http://reference.swim.aero/information-services/service-categories/CodeRegulatedInformationExchangeType.html 

information domain

METEOROLOGICAL_INFORMATION

https://reference.swim.aero/information-services/service-categories/CodeInformationDomainType.html

business activity

INFORMATION_MANAGEMENT

http://reference.swim.aero/information-services/service-categories/CodeBusinessActivityType.html 

intended service consumer

• CIVIL_AIRSPACE_USER

• MILITARY_AIRSPACE_USER

• CIVIL_AIR_NAVIGATION_SERVICE_PROVIDER

• MILITARY_AIR_NAVIGATION_SERVICE_PROVIDER

• AIRPORT_OPERATOR

• REGULATED_METEOROLOGICAL_SERVICE_PROVIDER

• AIR_TRAFFIC_SERVICE_PROVIDER

• COMMUNICATION_NAVIGATION_AND_SURVEILLANCE_SERVICE_PROVIDER

• PROVIDER_OF_DATA_SERVICES

• AIRSIDE_GROUND_HANDLER

https://reference.swim.aero/information-services/service-categories/CodeStakeholderType.html

intended service provider

REGULATED_METEOROLOGICAL_SERVICE_PROVIDER

http://reference.swim.aero/information-services/service-categories/CodeStakeholderType.html 

service type

• METEOROLOGICAL_FEATURE_ACCESS_SERVICE

• METEOROLOGICAL_INFORMATION_SUBSCRIPTION_SERVICE

http://reference.swim.aero/information-services/service-categories/CodeServiceType.html 

A list of operational needs that this service contributes to satisfying is available in Appendix B.

This service satisfies these by offering meteorological information as regulated by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/373 of 1 March 2017 and ICAO Annex 3.

The scope of the meteorological information satisfies the EU Implementing Regulation 2021/116 - Common Project One.

The service provides high quality, up-to-date, trusted, regulated meteorological information in digital form for use by service consumers within the aviation domain.

The service takes into account the following information exchange requirements:

• IER 1: The information currently included in the METAR/SPECI reports as defined in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/373, ICAO Annex 3 Amdt 82 and PANS-MET.

Request the latest METAR/SPECIs

The service consumer shall be able to request the latest METAR/SPECIs for an aerodrome or group of aerodromes.

The meteorological information is received and can be used by the service consumer.

Subscribe to METAR/SPECIs

The service consumer shall be able to subscribe/unsubscribe in order to receive METAR/SPECIs based on ICAO location indicator codes for aerodromes.

The service consumer subscribes to the service and will receive METAR/SPECIs as per the subscription or unsubscribes from the service.

Distribute METAR/SPECIs

The service shall distribute the METAR/SPECIs when they are available.

The service consumer receives the METAR/SPECIs.

There shall be a service policy to ensure that only service consumers within the aviation domain can use the service.

The service policy shall include a requirement that service consumers cannot pass the information obtained from the service to non-aviation users without prior authorisation from the service provider.

There shall be a service consumption constraint to ensure that a service consumer does not impose undue loads on computer and network resources, for example, by polling it at a higher frequency than the status is normally provided.

The service shall ensure consumer authentication in accordance with EUROCONTROL Specification for SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile requirement SWIM-TIYP-0042.

The service shall ensure provider authentication in accordance with EUROCONTROL Specification for SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile requirement SWIM-TIYP-0042.

The service shall ensure that satisfactory authorisation is put in place according to EUROCONTROL Specification for SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile requirement SWIM-TIYP-0070.

The service shall ensure point-to-point confidentiality in accordance with EUROCONTROL Specification for SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile through the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or above.

The service shall ensure point-to-point integrity in accordance with EUROCONTROL Specification for SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile through the use of Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2 or above.

The service shall achieve a quality that is sufficient to ensure the service is fit for purpose.

The service shall achieve a quality that is sufficient to ensure the service is fit for purpose.

The service shall achieve a quality that is sufficient to ensure the service is fit for purpose.

The service shall achieve a quality that is sufficient to ensure the service is fit for purpose.

The service shall ensure confidentiality by using SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile bindings.

The service shall ensure integrity by using SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile bindings.

The meteorological information offered by the service shall be verified by the service provider.

The meteorological information offered by the service shall be encoded according to the rules of the IWXXM standard.

The meteorological information offered by the service shall satisfy the WMO No. 8 (2018) Guide to Meteorological Instruments and Methods of Observation.

The service provider shall ensure that the meteorological data offered by the services is received from the appropriate authorised originating sources. This includes:

• REGULATED_METEOROLOGICAL_SERVICE_PROVIDER acting as the designated Aeronautical Meteorological Station (AMS); and

• REGULATED_METEOROLOGICAL_SERVICE_PROVIDER acting as the designated Aerodrome Meteorological Office (AMO) for the TREND.

• PUBLISH_SUBSCRIBE

• SYNCHRONOUS_REQUEST_REPLY

The service behaviour shall be in accordance with the patterns detailed in the Message Exchange Patterns: Identification Guidelines.

The typical service behaviour, is:

• The service consumer subscribes to the service

• The service sends the latest METAR/SPECIs to subscribers when they are available and match their subscription.

The interfaces have different behaviour. A combination of an AMQP 1.0 implementation and an OGC implementation shall be used for the basic behaviour.

The typical behaviour for PUBLISH_SUBSCRIBE means that:

• The subscription is handled by either:

  • a request-reply implementation (see IWXXM METAR-SPECI Subscription and Request Service Subscription Interface) or

  • an email request to the service provider.

•  The distribution of the messages is handled by an AMQP 1.0 implementation (see IWXXM METAR-SPECI Subscription and Request Service Distribution Interface).

The typical behaviour for REQUEST_REPLY (as used in IWXXM METAR-SPECI Subscription and Request Service Request Interface) is as follows:

Synchronous Request/Reply

• The request message is sent from the service consumer to the service

• The service consumer remains blocked while awaiting the reply

• The service remains blocked while processing the reply

• The METAR-SPECI, the reply message, is sent from the service to the service consumer.

A service monitoring mechanism should be made available to service consumers.

IWXXM METAR-SPECI Subscription and Request Service Request Interface

Allows the service consumer to request the latest available METAR/SPECIs.

Note: This interface is used to group the operations offered by the chosen OGC standard.

Provider side

IWXXM METAR-SPECI Subscription and Request Service Subscription Interface

Allows the service consumer to select and subscribe to METAR/SPECIs for aerodromes of interest. It allows the service consumer to manage the subscriptions e.g. to unsubscribe.

Note: This is an optional interface. Many service providers will prefer to receive subscription requests by email.

Provider side

IWXXM METAR-SPECI Subscription and Request Service Distribution Interface

Allows the service provider to distribute the latest available METAR/SPECIs meeting the need of the service consumer that has subscribed for updates.

Consumer side

EUROCONTROL Specification for SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile

1.1

WS_LIGHT

The service shall use the network bindings of the SWIM TIYP.

The interface shall use at least one of the following OGC standards:

• for services that exchange the meteorological information as resources:

  • OGC API – Environmental Data Retrieval Standard;

• for services that exchange the meteorological information as features:

  • OGC Web Feature Service 2.0 Interface Standard;

  • OGC API – Features.

Note: it is a best practice for new services that exchange meteorological information to implement the OGC API – Environmental Data Retrieval Standard.

Existing services based on the OGC Web Feature Service 2.0 Interface Standard should indicate an end-of-life date.

EUROCONTROL Specification for SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile

1.1

WS_LIGHT

The service shall use the network bindings of the SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile.

EUROCONTROL Specification for SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile

1.1

SWIM_TI_YP_1_1_AMQP_MESSAGING

The service shall use the network bindings of the SWIM TIYP.

AMQP 1.0 shall be used to distribute messages as explained in the Publish/Subscribe Push MEP: Implementation Guidance.

The service shall use TLS1.2 or later in accordance with EUROCONTROL Specification for SWIM Technical Infrastructure (TI) Yellow Profile.

GetFeature

The GetFeature operation returns a selection of features from a data store.  It responds to a GetFeature Request message with a Meteorological Aerodrome Observation Message that satisfies the query expressions specified in the request. 

Request, METAR/SPECI

Meteorological SWIM Services Subscription Interface Standard

The standard operations for subscription and subscription management.

The following operations shall be implement at a minimum:

• subscribe

• unsubscribe

publish

This operation allows the service provider to publish METAR-SPECI report(s) to service consumers based on their subscriptions.

METAR/SPECI

METAR/SPECI

The message that is an output of the service, containing the METAR/SPECI information.

Out

The METAR/SPECI information shall be provided in ICAO’s Meteorological Information Exchange Model (IWXXM) format containing a collection of features.

Request

Request message submitted to the service containing query expressions for the WFS GetFeature operation or the EDR HTTP GET operation.

In

Meteorological SWIM Services Subscription Interface Standard

The standard messages for subscription and subscription management.

The service shall offer meteorological information in accordance with ICAO Annex 3.

The service shall offer meteorological information in accordance with the rules of latest applicable version of IWXXM.

Note: the latest applicable version of IWXXM (IWXXM 2023-1) contains the METAR/SPECI schema version 3.1.0.

The IWXXM METAR/SPECI Subscription and Request Service Request Interface shall support filtering based on the ICAO location indicator of the aerodrome of interest.

The IWXXM METAR/SPECI Subscription and Request Service Subscription Interface shall allow for the selection of subscription based on clearly defined criteria.

The service may support other filters based on the operators defined in the OGC Filter Encoding 2.0 Encoding Standard on a case by case basis.

AMO

Aerodrome Meteorological Office

AMQP

Advanced Message Queuing Protocol

AMS

Aeronautical Meteorological Station

API

Application Programming Interface

EDR

Environmental Data Retrieval

EU

European Union

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol

ICAO

International Civil Aviation Organization

IWXXM

ICAO Meteorological Information Exchange Model

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation

MEP

Message Exchange Pattern

METAR

Aviation routine weather report (in aeronautical meteorological code)

OGC

Open Geospatial Consortium

PANS-MET

ICAO Procedures for Air Navigation Services – Meteorology

SPECI

Aerodrome SPECIAL meteorological report (in meteorological code)

SWIM

System wide information management

TI

Technical Infrastructure

TIYP

Technical Infrastructure Yellow Profile

TLS

Transport Layer Security 

TREND

A concise statement of the Expected Significant changes in the meteorological conditions at that Aerodrome to be appended to a local routine or local SPECIAL report, or a METAR or SPECI.

WFS

Web Feature Service

WMO

World Meteorological Organization

XML

Extensible Markup Language

EU Implementing Regulation 2021/116 - Common Project One

1 February 2021

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/116 of 1 February 2021 on the establishment of the Common Project One supporting the implementation of the European Air Traffic Management Master Plan provided for in Regulation (EC) No 550/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council, amending Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 409/2013 and repealing Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 716/2014.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32021R0116

ICAO Annex 3 Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation

The object of the meteorological service outlined in Annex 3 is to contribute to the safety, efficiency and regularity of air navigation. This is achieved by providing necessary meteorological information to operators, flight crew members, air traffic services units, search and rescue units, airport management and others concerned with aviation. Close liaison is essential between those supplying meteorological information and those using it.

https://store.icao.int/en/annex-3-meteorological-service-for-international-air-navigation

ICAO Procedures for Air Navigation Services – Meteorology (PANS-MET)

tbd

WMO No. 8 (2018) Guide to Meteorological Instruments and Methods of Observation

2021/2018 edition

https://community.wmo.int/en/activity-areas/imop/wmo-no_8

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/373

1 March 2017 (as amended)

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/373 of 1 March 2017 laying down common requirements for providers of air traffic management/air navigation services and other air traffic management network functions and their oversight, repealing Regulation (EC) No 482/2008, Implementing Regulations (EU) No 1034/2011, (EU) No 1035/2011 and (EU) 2016/1377 and amending Regulation (EU) No 677/2011.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A02017R0373-20230126

OGC API – Environmental Data Retrieval Standard

1.1

OGC API standards define modular API building blocks to spatially enable Web APIs in a consistent way. The OpenAPI specification is used to define the API building blocks.

• https://www.ogc.org/standard/ogcapi-edr/

• https://docs.ogc.org/is/19-086r6/19-086r6.html 

SERVICE_SPECIFICATION

ICAO Meteorological Information Exchange Model (IWXXM)

The ICAO Meteorological Information Exchange Model (IWXXM) is an exchange model capturing Meteorological information. It was introduced to support the exchange of meteorological information in accordance with ICAO Annex 3.

https://github.com/wmo-im/iwxxm

INFORMATION_DEFINITION

OGC Web Feature Service 2.0 Interface Standard

2.0

WFS offers direct fine-grained access to geographic information at the feature and feature property level. 

Note: This is equivalent to ISO 19142 - Geographic Information - Web Feature Service.

https://www.ogc.org/standard/wfs/

SERVICE_SPECIFICATION

OGC API – Features

OGC API Features provides API building blocks to create, modify and query features on the Web.

https://www.ogc.org/standard/ogcapi-features/

SERVICE_SPECIFICATION

OGC Filter Encoding 2.0 Encoding Standard

This jointly developed OGC and ISO TC/211 International Standard describes an XML and KVP encoding of a system neutral syntax for expressing projections, selection and sorting clauses collectively called a query expression. These components are modular and intended to be used together or individually by other standards which reference this International Standard.

Note: This is equivalent to ISO 19143 - Geographic Information - Filter encoding.

https://www.ogc.org/docs/is

SERVICE_SPECIFICATION

Message Exchange Patterns: Identification Guidelines

JULY 2nd, 2019

Document intended to facilitate the understanding of message exchange patterns from an application and Technical Infrastructure perspective.

https://reference.swim.aero/technical-infrastructure/message-exchange-patterns-identification-guidelines.html

SERVICE_BEHAVIOUR_DESCRIPTION

Publish/Subscribe Push MEP: Implementation Guidance

JULY 2nd, 2019

This document intends to serve as implementation guidance of the Publish/Subscribe Push Message Exchange Pattern using SWIM-TI Yellow Profile Service Bindings.

https://reference.swim.aero/technical-infrastructure/guidance-for-pub-sub-push-implementation.html

A generic term designating an organization operating aircraft and its pilots, the flight operations centres (FOC) responsible for the strategic planning of a flight and the entity responsible for the execution of a flight which is traditionally a flight deck.

• Generate graphical representations of data in support of responsibilities.

• Retrieve dynamic data to support digital integrated briefing concepts.

• Ensure safe operations by responding to changes in the situation.

• Require information on unique weather constraints such as fog, snow, convection etc., or on particular operational constraints such as runway throughput, winter procedures, noise abatement procedures, free routing, etc.

This role is recognised in the SESAR Deployment Programme as a recommended service consumer of the aerodrome and en-route services.

Airspace User under the authority of a military organisation.

• Generate graphical representations of data in support of responsibilities.

• Retrieve dynamic data to support digital integrated briefing concepts.

• Ensure safe operations by responding to changes in the situation.

• Require information on unique weather constraints such as fog, snow, convection etc., or on particular operational constraints such as runway throughput, winter procedures, noise abatement procedures, free routing, etc.

This role is recognised in the SESAR Deployment Programme as a service consumer of the aerodrome and en-route services. Although the military is not obliged to use SWIM, they currently rely on civil weather information and therefore it will be essential for their operations to use SWIM-services.

Any public or private entity providing air navigation services for general air traffic.

• Ensure safe operations by responding to changes in the conditions of the airspace infrastructure.

• Support real-time displays in, for example, remote towers.

• Require information on unique weather constraints such as fog, snow, convection etc., or on particular operational constraints such as runway throughput, winter procedures, noise abatement procedures, free routing, etc.

This role is recognised in the SESAR Deployment Programme as a service consumer of the aerodrome and en-route services.

The real-time aspects will have an impact on the service architecture.

Any public or private entity providing air navigation services for military air traffic.

• Ensure safe operations by responding to changes in the conditions of the airspace infrastructure.

• Require information on unique weather constraints such as fog, snow, convection etc., or on particular operational constraints such as runway throughput, winter procedures, noise abatement procedures, free routing, etc.

This role is recognised in the SESAR Deployment Programme as a service consumer of the aerodrome and en-route services. Although the military is not obliged to use SWIM, they currently rely on civil weather information and therefore it will be essential for their operations to use SWIM-services.

A generic term meaning variously, flight information service, alerting service, air traffic advisory service, air traffic control service (area control service, approach control service or aerodrome control service).

• Support situational awareness of APP and TWR units due to provision of current weather information

This role is recognised in the SESAR Deployment Programme as a service consumer of the aerodrome and en-route services under the term of ANSP.

An office designated to provide meteorological service for international air navigation.

• MET providers shall have the possibility and ability to consume needed information to perform their tasks e.g. flight briefing or to update their forecast products based on the latest weather information

This role is not recognised by the SESAR Deployment Program as a service consumer. However, it is recognised in ATM Master Plan (https://atmmasterplan.eu/data/enablers/20417016.)

Moreover, looking at the EU Reg. 2017/373, a MET Service Provider has to support stakeholders and for that MET-data is needed from other MET-providers. Also such MET-data is needed for their own purpose to evaluate the correctness of forecasts.

A service established within the defined area of coverage responsible for the provision of aeronautical information/data necessary for the safety, regularity and efficiency of air navigation.

• Not applicable

A provider of CNS services.

• CNS service providers shall have the possibility and ability to receive current wind information, especially during timeframes strong winds are forecasted.

Some equipment e.g. ground radar at airports have to be shut down if the wind rises above a certain windspeed threshold to avoid damage

A public or private entity responsible for the management of a Data Service Provision (e.g. to one or several Virtual Centre).

• In case a provider of data services also offers/handles MET data, the provider shall have the possibility and ability to receive the data needed

The organization responsible for enabling the optimum use of airspace and ensure that Airspace Users can operate preferred trajectories while allowing maximum access to airspaces and air navigation services.

• Not applicable

The civilian or military agency, group or individual which exercises control over the operations of the civil airport or military airfield.

• Support airport-CDM.

• Support aerodrome processes including low visibility operations, aerodrome warnings and runway configuration management.

This role is recognised in the SESAR Deployment Programme as a service consumer of the aerodrome services.

A stakeholder involved in the services necessary for an aircraft's arrival at, and departure from, an airport, other than air traffic services.

• Provide information to ground handlers especially in regard to hazardous weather which might affect their operations (thunderstorms, freezing rain,..)

A military defence centre.

Note: these centres, e.g., check for diplomatic clearance.

• Not applicable