SESAR 3D Radar and Harmonised Turbulence Services

SESAR Deployment Projects

The Met Office has collaborated with European partners on three SESAR Deployment projects, providing aviation stakeholders with tools for dynamic decision-making based on prevailing weather conditions throughout all flight stages.

Purpose of the projects:

The SESAR European Harmonised Forecast of Adverse Weather (IP68) and European Weather Radar Composite of Convection Information (IP67) offer a common aviation weather reference across Europe. This enables optimal flight planning to avoid disruptions and delays, reducing reactive diversions, fuel burn, CO2 emissions, and costs.

• Harmonised Forecasts of Adverse Weather: Blends individual forecasts from National Met Services into a common reference for aviation weather hazards across Europe.
• 3D Composite Weather Radar: Provides a 3D composite of weather radar over Europe, preserving height information for better understanding of convective storm development and intensity.

Click here to visit the SESAR Deployment Manager for more information

Met Office SESAR Services

Following the completion of the above projects, the Met Office will soon offer two fully supported operational services for aeronautical users:

3D Radar

• Formats: HDF5 or GRIB2
• Resolutions: Higher resolution for UK-Ireland FAB and FABEC; lower resolution for wider European domain
• Parameters: Depth and intensity of convective storms, development assessment, hail potential

Input radar data is provided via OPERA (EUMETNET Radar Programme) and processed by the Met Office and Météo-France.

For full details read the SWIM Service Description, click here to read 3D RADAR Service (HDF5) or 3D Radar Service (GRIB2).

Harmonised Turbulence Service 

Delivers a blend of turbulence data from the Met Office, Météo-France and Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) to produce a harmonised, pan-European view of forecast turbulence.  Plus, the additional option of a polygon features service marking regions of low, moderate and severe intensity levels.   

Output Units	Turbulence intensity scale (0, 1, 2, 3 for nil, light, moderate, severe)
Coverage Domain	29.5°N- 70.5°N; 23.5°W – 62.5°E
Horizontal resolution	0.0625° x 0.0625°
Vertical resolution	9 Flight levels approximately FL230 to FL450
Issue frequency	Four times daily, every 6 hours
Timesteps within forecast	Hourly to T+24Hr, then 3 hourly to T+48hr
Output format	GRIB2 (Gridded data), XML (Vector data)

Click here to read the SWIM Registry Service Description, SESAR Pan-European Harmonised Turbulence Service, for full details about these services.

Accessing the Data

The Services are accessed using an API and are searchable on EUROCONTROL’s SWIM (System-Wide Information Management) registry SWIM registry.

They are ICAO SWIM compliant, following SWIM Yellow profile to enable interoperability with other aviation systems and cloud hosted, to enable the system to scale according to the demands placed upon it.

Operational Use

The Harmonised Turbulence and 3D RADAR services are intended for use by aeronautical organisations for aviation purposes.   Please check the following list to ensure your organisation’s eligibility to use these services: 
•    Airlines 
•    Air Traffic Control 
•    Airport Management 
•    Flight Crew 
•    Search and Rescue Services 
•    Handling Agencies 
•    Flight planning companies 
•    EUROCONTROL Network Manager 
•    MET Air Navigation Service Providers 

In addition, the services can also be accessed by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) (for Official Duty Purposes only).  

If you are unsure whether your organisation is eligible for access to these services, please see our FAQs section for further information, or contact [email protected] for further assistance.  

Guidance and additional information

The following documents provide guidelines for using the data and more information about the different projects:

• Met Office SESAR Services User Guide
• Statement of Operational Use
• Frequently asked questions 
• The SWAGGER Definition which specifies the format of the API requests
• Turbulence Polygons Guidance
• Map domains of turbulence forecast subsets
• Met Office SESAR projects - detailed overview (PDF)

Contact details and stay updated

If you would like to speak to a member of the Met Office team about the SESAR services or projects please contact [email protected]

You can stay up-to-date with what is happening across our aviation services, including projects like SESAR, by following our Met Office Aviation Services LinkedIn page.