Aerodrome Meteorological Observing System

Hong Kong Observatory operates a number of meteorological equipment for the airport. Please refer to Meteorological Stations for the Airport for details.

An aerodrome meteorological observing system (AMOS) monitors the weather conditions along the airport runways and neighbouring areas. There are a number of meteorological instruments on the runway, all of the state-of-the-art design and meeting the standards and recommendations laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organization and World Meteorological Organization.

Meteorological equipment

Anemometers are installed in the middle and at both ends of the runways. They measure the wind direction and speed an aircraft will encounter during take-off and landing.

There are also runway visual range transmissometers to measure visiblity condition along the runways.

Conventional meteorological equipment such as thermometers, barometers and raingauges are set up in a meteorological enclosure near the Air Traffic Control Tower.

Ceilometers are installed at Siu Mo To (the smaller island of the Brothers), Tai O and meteorological enclosure at Chek Lap Kok to assist observation of cloud base over the aerodrome as well as the approach and departure areas.

About the locations and further details of the meteorological equipment, please refer to Meteorological Stations for the Airport.

A display of meteorological data for the airport

Processing of meteorological data

The AMOS processes the data from all the above meteorological sensors and presents them on graphical displays for use by aviation forecasters, observers and air traffic controllers. The data will also be automatically archived for compilation of climatological statistics.