SESAR - Frequently Asked Questions

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1. What are the different services available as part of the SESAR Deployment Projects?
2. Who was involved in the SESAR projects?
3. Am I eligible to register my organisation for access to these harmonised services? 
4. How do I register my organisation for access to these services?
5. How do I create a new Met Office account? 
6. How do I report a problem with the services? 
7. Is there an alternative service I can use as a contingency? 
8. What will happen in the unlikely event of an issue with the harmonised turbulence data becoming available? 
9. I'm having issues finding the information I need. Who can I speak to? 

 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are the different services available as part of the SESAR Deployment Projects?

There are two services, the Harmonised Turbulence service and the 3D RADAR service, each with a variety of different products available as shown in the tables below:

Harmonised Turbulence

Product Type	Format	Horizontal Resolution	Vertical Pressure Levels	Timesteps	Update Frequency	Duration (Hours)
Full pan-European spatial gridded dataset	GRIB2	0.0625	9	28	Every 6 hours	T+36
Choice of pre-defined FAB area sub-sets for gridded datasets	GRIB2	0.0625	9	28	Every 6 hours	T+36
Full pan-European spatial area polygon features service	GeoJSON	N/A Separated by turbulence severity values	9	28	Every 6 hours	T+36

3D RADAR

Product Type	Domain Area	Format	Horizontal Resolution	Vertical Unit	Vertical Levels	Update Frequency
Full high-resolution dataset	Covering FABEC and UK-Ireland FAB	ODIM HDF5	1km	Metres	24	Every 5 minutes
Full low-resolution dataset	Wider pan-European geographical area	ODIM HDF5	2km	Metres	24	Every 15 minutes
Full high-resolution dataset*	Covering FABEC and UK-Ireland FAB	GRIB2	1km	Flight Levels	24	Every 5 minutes
Subset of high-resolution datasets*	Choice of pre-defined FAB area subsets	GRIB2	1km	Flight Levels	24	Every 5 minutes
Full low-resolution dataset*	Wider pan-Eiropean geographical area	GRIB2	2km	Flight Levels	24	Every 15 minutes

*Please note, these services are initially being made available as SWIM candidate services only and will not currently be used operationally, only for further user testing. 

Who was involved in the SESAR projects?

• UK Met Office 
• DWD
• MeteoFrance
• FMI
• KNMI
• Eurocontrol
• EUMETNET

Am I eligible to register my organisation for access to these harmonised services? 

The Harmonised Turbulence and 3D RADAR services are primarily intended for use by aeronautical users for aviation purposes as defined in Annex 3 of the ICAO Chicago Convention of 1944 and in MET.OR.100 of Annex V – Part-MET of regulation (EU) 2017/373[12]. These regulations indicate there are many types of aeronautical user, such as:

1. Airlines
2. Air Traffic Control
3. Airport Management
4. Flight Crew
5. Search and Rescue Services
6. Handling Agencies
7. Flight planning companies
8. EUROCONTROL Network Manager
9. MET Air Navigation Service Providers

A small number of other uses are permitted, specifically by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) for Official Duty Purposes only. Please check the following table to see if your organisation is eligible to use these services: 
 

User type/licence conditions	Official Duty - real time forecasting duty for regulated aviation	Use of IRMA in Aeronautical domain	Official Duty - real time forecasting duty other use covered by 'Official Duty' definition	Official Duty - for national infrastructure/regulated bodies. Product cannot be altered for any onward transmission	Aeronautical Commercial contract within the aeronautical service provision domain	Commercial contract non-aviation	Aeronautical and Official Duty Research - not in real time, outcome of research cannot be used for future commercial activities
Aeronautical	N/A	Yes	N/A	N/A	Yes	No	Yes
MET ANSP	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A	(Yes)	No	Yes
NMHS (not in the capacity of MET ANSP)	N/A	N/A	Yes	(Yes)	No	No	Yes
Commercial weather provider	N/A	N/A	No	No	Yes	No	No
Research institutions	N/A	N/A	No	No	No	No	No
General public	N/A	N/A	No	No	No	No	No
Special category single site weather radar provider	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	No	No	N/A

If you are unsure whether your organisation is eligible for access to these services, please contact [email protected]. 

How do I register my organisation for access to these services?

The SESAR Services datasets are available via our https: endpoint, therefore it is most likely an engineer or technician will need to set up the credentials for the “machine-to-machine” communications to download the data via API. 

Please contact the Met Office SESAR Services Manager to request access to the services, providing your full name, job role, organisation, business email address, business telephone number and stating which industry you are in (European Air Traffic management, State Air Navigation Service Provider, Airline, Airport – if ‘other’ please specify). We will also require a specific email address which will be used to set up the account for accessing the SESAR endpoint via API. (We recommend using a group email address, for example in the format [email protected], rather than your personal email address.  This is so that the registered email address is unique to your machine systems and technical personnel can have access to the inbox, but your account will not be dependent on an individual’s personal email address.)

1. The SESAR Services Manager will provide a confirmation email when your email address has been approved for use, where you will be supplied with a link to set up your Met Office account. 
2. The system will guide you through the rest of the process to set up your user account, using your approved group business email address. 
3. You will be prompted to set up a password for your account which is required to ingest SESAR Services data via the SWIM Compliant Endpoint. 
4. Your account will now be set up and your machine will be able to retrieve the SESAR Services data successfully. You can now log in to the SESAR Services access point with your username (email address) and password on the Login page.

How do I create a new Met Office account? 

Once your organisation has been authorised for access to the SESAR Services, the SESAR Services Manager will provide a confirmation email where you will be supplied with a link to set up your Met Office account. The system will guide you through the rest of the process to set up your user account, using your approved group business email address. 

How do I report a problem with the services? 

If you think there may be a fault in the system, please contact 0370 900 0100 or fill in the contact form opposite. 

Is there an alternative service I can use as a contingency? 

These data services have been built using cloud technology and are expected to be very reliable, with a high level of availability. Nonetheless, it is recognised that in the very unlikely event of a problem, a contingency data feed may be required. 
3D RADAR and Harmonised Turbulence data may also be available from our partners DWD and Météo-France. Access to these services can be found through the SWIM registry https://eur-registry.swim.aero/services 

Users may also be eligible to access the turbulence data feed we provide via our SADIS service. (Please note: registration permissions are required to access this.) More information on this can be found on our SADIS webpage. 

What will happen in the unlikely event of an issue with the harmonised turbulence data becoming available? 

The latest harmonised model data will always be available for the end user to collect. Each model update provides data that is valid for 36 hours and should be updated every 6 hours. In the unlikely event of an issue with new data becoming available, the most recent available data will remain accessible. This may mean that the validity period of the data reduces from 36 hours, and it could be possible to access a file that is no longer in its period of validity. However, in most scenarios any period of non-availability should only last a few hours.  

I'm having issues finding the information I need. Who can I speak to? 

Please contact the Met Office SESAR Services Manager, or alternatively contact 0370 900 0100.