Sesar

The SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) programme is one of the most ambitious research and development projects launched by the European Union. The programme is the technological and operational dimension of the Single European Sky (SES) initiative to meet future capacity and air safety needs.

Given the complexity of the programme, a legal entity called the ‘SESAR Joint Undertaking’ (SJU) was founded by the European Union and Eurocontrol, to coordinate and concentrate all relevant research and development efforts in the Community.

The mission of the SJU is to develop a modernised air traffic management system for Europe. This future system will ensure the safety and fluidity of air transport over the next thirty years, will make flying more environmentally friendly and reduce the costs of air traffic management.

Following on from the conclusion of SESAR phase 1 (2016), successful solutions which have demonstrated significant performance or safety benefits and fulfil the requirement of the EU’s Pilot Common Project (CIR (EU) N° 716/2014)  are being taken to the deployment stage. The SESAR Deployment Manager  has been established to coordinate and efficiently synchronise the upgrading of Europe’s air traffic management infrastructure in line with the Deployment Programme. In parallel, the SJU are also organising the second phase of SESAR R&D activities, namely SESAR2020.

Meteorology and EUMETNET in SESAR
 

The SESAR phase 1 programme included a dedicated Work Package which addressed the critical dependency between weather, the environment, and the operational solutions of the SESAR Programme.  Work Package 11.02 ran from 2012-2016 and aimed to better integrate new MET information services and information delivery functions, to enhance the performance of ATM.

As the MET Federating Project within the Programme, 11.2 ensured consistency and coordination of the MET architecture, systems and services, utilised by all SESAR projects and solutions. EUMETNET were responsible for the ‘Meteorological Information Exchange Solution 35’. The recently published Solution Catalogue  describes the role MET plays in the ATM system and the work EUMETNET has done within SESAR.

EUMETNET led this MET workpackage which harnessed skills and technology into a consortium involving industry partners and several of our members:

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Following the successful conclusion of SESAR1, the technologies the EUMETNET consortium designed, developed, demonstrated and validated, have now been awarded EU grants to deploy to the stage of operational readiness. These deployment projects are being coordinated by EUMETNET in partnership with the SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM).

The deployment projects include:

·       2015_067_AF5 – European Weather Radar Composite of Convection Information Service

·       2015_068_AF5 – European Harmonised Forecasts of Adverse Weather (Icing, Turbulence, Convection and Winter weather)

·       2015_069_AF5 – European MET Information Exchange (MET-GATE)

·       2016 – SWIM Governance

Organisation

The SESAR activities of EUMETNET EIG are primarily undertaken by our Members, and coordinated through the EUMETNET Aviation Support Activity to ensure a consistent and compatible approach.

EUMETNET Aviation Coordinator
Ms. Rosalind Lapsley
from Met Office (United Kingdom)

EUMETNET Aviation Expert
Ms. Anu Lång
from Finnish Meteorological Institute (Finland)

More Information

WG Avimet

SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) [http://www.sesarju.eu/]

SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM) [http://www.sesarju.eu/]

Objectives

Aviation, consisting of a wide spectrum of aeronautical stakeholders, is a high priority customer group for most EUMETNET Members. Via co-operation, EUMETNET Members strive to improve the value and efficiency of aeronautical meteorological services to ensure performance benefits for the aviation industry as well as to reduce the negative impact of adverse weather conditions on the daily operations.

AVIMET is a Working Group of EUMETNET that was created to address issues of common interest within the aeronautical meteorological (MET) domain, especially in relation to the ongoing development of the political, technical and regulatory landscape under a Single European Sky (SES). In addition to this, the WG AVIMET aims to facilitate the exchange of information between members on aviation meteorological issues whilst developing common position statements of EUMETNET on aviation-related issues.

Focus Areas

AVIMET has identified three main focus areas:

• Improving the value and efficiency of aeronautical meteorological services to the aviation industry to ensure performance benefits through cooperation, innovation and investment for the future
• Improving the perception of the MET service providers by the other aviation stakeholders
• Responding in a cooperative, consistent and user-focused way to the demands of the implementation of the Single European Sky (SES) initiative

Membership & Organisation

Membership is open to all EUMETNET Members who may nominate one representative to the Working Group. In general, the representative should belong to an authorized and certified MET Service Provider which may be either the EUMETNET Member itself or another agency in that country. On 1st of January 2017 AVIMET has 33 members.

The Working Group tasks are coordinated by an elected WG Chairperson whose main roles are to:

• Act as an external spokesman for WG AVIMET when required
• Act as an internal rapporteur to other EUMETNET bodies as required
• Provide advice to the EUMETNET Aviation Support on how aviation issues should be handled

The AVIMET Chair is assisted by 2 elected Vice-Chairs.