For: Meitar METAR (Aviation Routine Weather Report) is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by pilots in fulfillment of a part of a pre-flight weather briefing, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting.
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For: Meitar METAR (Aviation Routine Weather Report) is a format for reporting weather information. A METAR weather report is predominantly used by pilots in fulfillment of a part of a pre-flight weather briefing, and by meteorologists, who use aggregated METAR information to assist in weather forecasting.
Origination
METAR reports typically come from airports or permanent weather observation stations. Reports are typically generated once an hour; if conditions change significantly, however, they can be updated in special reports called SPECIs. Some reports are encoded by automated airport weather stations located at airports, military bases, and other sites. Some locations still use augmented observations, which are recorded by digital sensors, encoded via software, and then reviewed by certified weather observers or forecasters prior to being transmitted. Observations may also be taken by trained observers or forecasters who manually observe and encode their observations prior to transmission.
History
The METAR format was introduced 1 January 1968 internationally and has been modified a number of times since. North American countries continued to use a Surface Aviation Observation (SAO) for current weather conditions until 1 June 1996, when this report was replaced with an approved variant of the METAR agreed upon in a 1989 Geneva agreement. The World Meteorological Organization's publication No. 782 "Aerodrome Reports and Forecasts" contains the base METAR code as adopted by the WMO member countries.
Naming
The word METAR originated from the French phrase "message d'observation météorologique régulière pour l'aviation". It is thought to be a contraction of the French words MÉTéorologique ("Weather") Aviation Régulière ("Routine"). The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) defines a METAR as an aviation routine weather report in the Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) and would therefore consider it erroneous to attempt to redefine METAR with incorrect terminology (such as METeorological Aerodrome Report). The FAA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) specifically define a METAR as an aviation routine weather report, which is an approximate translation of the historical French description.
Information contained in a METAR
A typical METAR report contains data for the temperature, dew point, wind speed and direction, precipitation, cloud cover and heights, visibility, and barometric pressure. A METAR report may also contain information on precipitation amounts, lightning, and other information that would be of interest to pilots or meteorologists such as Colour States and RVR.
In addition, a short period forecast called a TREND may be added at the end of the METAR covering likely changes in weather conditions in the two hours following the observation. These are in the same format as a Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF).
