09 Apr 2024

by Kam Bhatoa

Always take the weather with you: Migrating the Met Office Space Weather programme

Identifying potential weather hazards is crucial for flying safety – from turbulence, cloud cover and severe icing to volcanic activity, cyclones and nuclear events.

As the aviation industry rapidly evolves new and improved data sets will contribute towards limiting the environmental impact of air travel, coping with increased traffic and capacity demands and helping air traffic management strategies to improve flight safety by avoiding hazardous weather conditions – ultimately decreasing the risk of disasters and protecting lives.

Utilising Meteorological Insights for Aviation Safety

People around the world look to the Met Office for weather and climate-related data. With its commitment to accuracy and innovation, the Met Office utilises advanced technology and scientific research to assist governmental decision-making and issue weather warnings to the public.

Access to accurate meteorological forecasts is crucial in the aviation industry. Weather hazards such as turbulence, icing, convective storms, volcanic activity, cyclones and nuclear events all have a significant impact on the comfort, timing and ultimate safety of a flight.

Modernising Aviation Forecasting: Automating for Enhanced Safety and Efficiency

In the early 1980s, requirements were developed for the World Area Forecast System (WAFS) to include the forecasting of upper air winds, temperatures and significant weather hazards. The result was the WAFS Significant Weather (SIGWX) charts; used to assess the weather conditions impacting flight plans, identifying the location of the jet stream and areas of potentially hazardous weather that could pose risk.

As of 2024, the Met Office WAFS forecasts are still a manual process, involving a team of meteorologists laboriously extracting data from the Met Office supercomputer and producing charts by hand every six hours. As well as this process taking up valuable meteorologist time, the Met Office was struggling to maintain this bank of experts.

Another issue the Met Office had was that the current system was restricted to producing 24-hour forecasts. This top-line view no longer met the needs of the aviation industry, particularly for short-haul and ultra-long-haul flight planning.

The Met Office needed to automate this decades-old process to ensure weather-related data is delivered to the right people, in the right format, at the right time to increase the safety and carbon efficiency of flight planning, as well as improve the customer experience.

BJSS and Met Office Collaborate in Transforming Aviation Forecasting

In 2022 the Met Office challenged BJSS to help futureproof and transform the legacy forecasting process and manual forecast creation to enhance the delivery of crucial information to the aviation industry.

BJSS worked collaboratively with Met Office in a hybrid model partnership, to automate the production of forecasts for reporting aviation weather information, increasing the accessibility of global weather data and ensuring safer flying conditions across the world.

Check out how BJSS and the Met Office delivered the new SIGWX system in just 12 months: https://www.bjss.com/our-work/met-office-futureproofing-significant-weather-forecasts

Heather Cover-Kus

Head of Central Government Programme, techUK

Heather is Head of Central Government Programme at techUK, working to represent the supplier community of tech products and services to Central Government.

Prior to joining techUK in April 2022, Heather worked in the Economic Policy and Small States Section at the Commonwealth Secretariat. She led the organisation’s FinTech programme and worked to create an enabling environment for developing countries to take advantage of the socio-economic benefits of FinTech.

Before moving to the UK, Heather worked at the Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and the Central Bank of The Bahamas.

Heather holds a Graduate Diploma in Law from BPP, a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) from LSE, and a BA in Economics and Sociology from Macalester College.

Email:: [email protected]
LinkedIn:: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-cover-kus-ba636538

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Ellie Huckle

Programme Manager, Central Government, techUK

Ellie joined techUK in March 2018 as a Programme Assistant to the Public Sector team and now works as a Programme Manager for the Central Government Programme.

The programme represents the supplier community of technology products and services in Central Government – in summary working to make Government a more informed buyer, increasing supplier visibility in order to improve their chances of supplying to Government Departments, and fostering better engagement between the public sector and industry. To find out more about what we do, how we do this and how you can get involved – make sure to get in touch!

Prior to joining techUK, Ellie completed Sixth Form in June 2015 and went on to work in Waitrose, moved on swiftly to walking dogs and finally, got an office job working for a small local business in North London, where she lives with her family and their two Bengal cats Kai and Nova.

When she isn’t working Ellie likes to spend time with her family and friends, her cats, and enjoys volunteering for diabetes charities. She has a keen interest in writing, escaping with a good book and expanding her knowledge watching far too many quiz shows!

Email:: [email protected]
Phone:: 020 7331 2015
Twitter:: @techUK,@techUK
Website:: www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org
LinkedIn:: https://bit.ly/3mtQ7Jx,https://bit.ly/3mtQ7Jx

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Annie Collings

Programme Manager, Cyber Security and Central Government, techUK

Annie joined techUK as the Programme Manager for Cyber Security and Central Government in September 2023. In this role, she supports the Cyber Security SME Forum, engaging regularly with key government and industry stakeholders to advance the growth and development of SMEs in the cyber sector.

Before joining techUK, Annie was an Account Manager at a specialist healthcare agency, where she provided public affairs support to a wide range of medical technology clients. She also gained experience as an intern in both an MP’s constituency office and with the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed. Annie holds a degree in International Relations from Nottingham Trent University.

Email:: [email protected]
Twitter:: anniecollings24
LinkedIn:: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-collings-270150158/

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Austin Earl

Programme Manager, Central Government, techUK

Austin joined techUK’s Central Government team in March 2024 to launch a workstream within Education and EdTech.

With a career spanning technology, policy, media, events and comms, Austin has worked with technology communities, as well as policy leaders and practitioners in Education, Central and Local Government and the NHS.

Cutting his teeth working for Skills Matter, London’s developer community hub, Austin then moved to GovNet Communications where he launched Blockchain Live and the Cyber Security and Data Protection Summit. For the last 3 years he has worked with leaders in Education across the state and independent schools sectors, from primary up to higher education, with a strong research interest in technology and education management.

Email:: [email protected]
Phone:: 07891 743 932
Website:: www.techuk.org,www.techuk.org
LinkedIn:: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-spencer-earl/,https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-spencer-earl/

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Ella Gago-Brookes

Team Assistant, Markets, techUK

Ella joined techUK in November 2023 as a Markets Team Assistant, supporting the Justice and Emergency Services, Central Government and Financial Services Programmes.

Before joining the team, she was working at the Magistrates' Courts in legal administration and graduated from the University of Liverpool in 2022. Ella attained an undergraduate degree in History and Politics, and a master's degree in International Relations and Security Studies, with a particular interest in studying asylum rights and gendered violence.

In her spare time she enjoys going to the gym, watching true crime documentaries, travelling, and making her best attempts to become a better cook.

Email:: [email protected]

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Authors

Kam Bhatoa

Head of Government, BJSS

Bringing diversity, energy, and a strong motivation, BJSS has over 25 years’ experience delivering inclusive technology in the Public Sector. We strive to develop open, forward-thinking, and collaborative environments to solve citizens' problems while working with government departments to deliver the best outcomes for taxpayers.

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