Service Name

Upper Air Wind & Temperature Observation (EMADDC) information service

Service Abstract

EMADDC is an operational center for the ECAC area that processes Aircraft Derived Data, such as Mode-S EHS and MRAR into quality controlled upper air observations of wind direction, wind speed and air temperature.

Common Service Definition

There is no service definition, as there is only one provider. The service description is available on the SWIM Registry from KNMI (MET Provider of The Netherlands).

Service Implementation Status

EMADDC is a SESAR Deployment project that will conclude by end of 2023. The service description will soon be available on the SWIM Registry.

Service Information

The objective of EMADDC is to obtain as many near real time quality controlled meteorological upper air observations (wind and temperature) for Europe at large for as little cost as possible. This is achieved by implementing an operational service for collecting, processing and disseminating ModeS EHS derived, quality controlled meteorological data.

Service Provision

Service Provider Organization

Currently EMADDC version 2.2 is operational and processes data provided by several providers covering a significant part of Western Europe. The system is developed and operated using the DTAP (development, test, acceptance and production server) philosophy. The DTAP system is hosted in a government data center in Amsterdam.

Data Origination

EMADDC is led by KNMI, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. The Met Office (United Kingdom) is cooperating and contributor to the EMADDC project.

Provision Architecture

Modern aircraft carry sensors to measure the Mach number (using a pitot static probe) and air temperature (T). An enhanced surveillance (EHS) air traffic control (ATC) radar interrogates all aircraft in sight in a selective mode (Mode-S), on which the aircraft replies with a message containing, for example, magnetic heading, airspeed and Mach number. These messages can be collected by Air Traffic Control or by a network of local receivers. 

The geographical coverage has been increasing steadily via existing and new data providers and the EMADDC team would like to acknowledge the valuable contribution of these partners. These are:

• Denmark – Air Support

• France – Meteo France / DSNA

• Denmark – DMI (via local ATS ANSP)

• Norway – Met.no (via local ATS ANSP)

• Romania – Romatsa

• Austria – Austro Control

• United Kingdom – Met Office

• Slovenia - ARSO

• Spain – AEMET (via local ATS ANSP)

• Sweden - SMHI

• The Netherlands – EUROCONTROL MUAC

• The Netherlands – LVNL

• And several others who are currently in initial set-up phase.

EMADDC delivers approximately 35 million quality-controlled wind observations, and 20 million temperature observations, per day.

Service Consumption and Usage

Service Consumer Organization

There are many use cases for the enormous amount of quality controlled upper air observations for the MUAC area that is now available and will expand geographically in the near future. The data set can for example be used for verification or validation of other observations or for climate monitoring. The observations can also be used for assimilation in NWP, operational use in the weather room, or in ATM concepts.