ICAO 8896
Manual of Aeronautical Meteorological Practice
Organization: | ICAO |
Publication Date: | 1 January 2019 |
Status: | active |
Page Count: | 174 |
scope:
FOREWORD
1. The first edition of the Manual of Aeronautical Meteorological Practice, published in response to recommendations made by the Meteorology and Operations Divisional Meeting1 (Paris, 1964), was intended as a guide for use by pilots and other aeronautical personnel on meteorological procedures, codes, symbols and abbreviations. It also contained a multilingual list of terms and phrases commonly used in meteorological briefings.
2. A second edition was prepared in 1977 to reflect, in particular, the many changes in procedures and terminology recommended by the Eighth Air Navigation Conference and the Meteorology Divisional Meeting2 (1974).
3. As demand for the manual continued to grow and because further important changes to meteorological procedures had taken place, particularly in connection with the recommendations for the establishment of a world area forecast system (WAFS) made by the Communications/Meteo
4. As a consequence of an extensive amendment proposal to Annex 3 - Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation developed by the Communications/Meteo
5. The fifth edition was the direct result of Amendment 70 to Annex 3, applicable from 1 January 1996, which constituted a comprehensive update of the provisions, in particular, those related to air-reporting and the observation and reporting of wind shear. In addition, new provisions concerning information on weather phenomena hazardous to low-level flights (AIRMET and GAMET messages) were introduced.
6. The sixth edition reflected the substantial changes made to Annex 3 in Amendments 71 and 72.
7. The seventh edition took account of the substantial changes which were introduced in Annex 3 by Amendment 73, which was developed by the Meteorological Divisional Meeting (2002)5 and became applicable in November 2004. In view of the fact that all of the technical specifications and templates had been regrouped in Part II of Annex 3 by subject matter, it was no longer considered necessary to reproduce these templates in this manual. Furthermore, material related to coordination between aeronautical meteorological services and air traffic services, search and rescue and aeronautical information services units was eliminated since these issues were extensively covered in the Manual on Coordination between Air Traffic Services, Aeronautical Information Services and Aeronautical Meteorological Services (Doc 9377).
8. The eighth edition incorporated all the changes included in Amendment 74 to Annex 3. Furthermore, explanations of the terms "MET authority", "MET inspectorate", "MET regulator" and "MET service provider" were introduced, guidance related to issuance of SIGMET was expanded and the chapter related to meteorological service for operators and flight crew members was re-organized and clarified.
9. The ninth edition reflected the substantial changes made to Annex 3 by Amendment 75 (2010).
10. The tenth edition incorporated changes resulting from Amendment 76 (2013) including clarification of the terminology used for meteorological offices.
11. The eleventh edition incorporates changes resulting from Amendment 77 to Annex 3, which was developed by the Meteorological Divisional Meeting (2014)6 and became applicable in November 2016. It introduces digital format for volcanic ash and tropical cyclone advisories and AIRMET information, and the provision of METAR/SPECI, TAF and SIGMET information in digital format.
12. This twelfth edition introduces space weather centres and the requirement to disseminate OPMET information using ICAO meteorological information exchange model (IWXXM)7 geography markup language (GML) form, introduced in Amendment 78 to Annex 3. 13.
13. The body of the manual is based primarily on Annex 3, summarized and enlarged upon where necessary. The appendices provide information on other subjects such as location of instruments at aerodromes and use of meteorological information by operators and flight crew members.
14. It should be stressed that the material in this manual is intended for guidance only. It is not intended to replace relevant national instructions or explanatory material, nor is it intended to cover the many non-aeronautical uses of meteorological information. Nothing in this manual should be taken as contradicting or conflicting with Annex 3 provisions or any other Standards, Recommended Practices, procedures or guidance material published by ICAO or WMO. It should also be noted that in this manual the words "shall" and "should" are not used in a regulatory sense as in ICAO or WMO regulatory documents.
1 Held conjointly with the Third Session of the Commission for Aeronautical Meteorology (CAeM) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
2 Held, in part, conjointly with the Extraordinary Session (1974) of the body mentioned in Note 1.
3 Held conjointly with the Seventh Session of the body mentioned in Note 1.
4 Held conjointly with the Ninth Session of the body mentioned in Note 1.
5 Held conjointly with the Twelfth Session of the body mentioned in Note 1.
6 Held conjointly with the Fifteenth Session of the body mentioned in Note 1.
7 A data model for representing aeronautical meteorological information.
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