HKO News Bulletin for the Aviation Community

-- aims at providing the latest information and development in aviation weather (English only)

30th Issue

Pilot's Corner
Significant convection cases in late March and early April The rain season in 2014 unveiled in a rather dramatic way, not only did it coincided with the Observatory's Open Day on 29 and 30 March, the extensive and intensive convection triggered both Red and Black rainstorm warnings on 30 March which marked the earliest Red and Black rainstorm signals in a year since the warning system started operation in 1992, and there were hail reports in many parts of the territory...
Latest Development
New alert criteria of the Airport Thunderstorm and Lightning Alerting System (ATLAS) Starting from February 2014, criteria of ATLAS Amber alert based on lightning detection had been extended from 5km to 10km of the airport. The modification was introduced after consulting users and aims at better protection for aircraft maintenance staff that related work should stop when there is lightning activity within 10km of the airport...
New information introduced on the Significant Convection Monitoring and Forecast page The Capacity Notification Message issued by the Air Traffic Flow Management Unit of the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department was added to the integrated Significant Convection Monitoring and Forecast page on AMIDS. The message provides an estimate of the Airport Acceptance Rate for the next few hours and the expected delay time for arrival flights...
Aviation specific contents on the Observatory's personalized website (my.weather.gov.hk) The Observatory further enhanced the "Hong Kong Observatory Personalized website" with more contents that the user can customize. The latest update introduced a new set of tailored widgets under the aviation weather category including weather reports (METAR) and forecast (TAF) for the Hong Kong International Airport, plus the Weather Forecast for Local Aviation issued by the Airport Meteorological Office...
Earlier availability of Significant Weather Charts Starting from end of March 2014, the prognostic significant weather charts issued by World Area Forecast Centres (WAFS SIGWX charts) were made available on AMIDS at approximately one hour earlier than before...
Collaboration
Pilots from Cathay Pacific Airways Limited visited the Hong Kong Observatory The Cathay Cadet Entry Pilot Forum took a group of pilots to visit the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) on 26 March. The group went to the Central Forecasting Office and the Studio to understand how weather forecasts were formulated and how TV Weather Programmes were prepared. The pilots and staff of HKO also took this opportunity to exchange views on...
Enhancing Regional Co-operation between Meteorological Services in support of Civil Aviation As a regular event between the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) and the Observatory, Ms. Sharon Lau, Assistant Director of the Observatory, led a delegation of three to join the 6^th meeting of the Pearl River Delta Aviation Weather Working Group, held at Shantou, China on 22 and 23 April 2014...
Education and Training
General weather knowledge for the Airport Community To promote meteorological knowledge within the airport community, the Observatory and Airport Authority Hong Kong joined hands and started a series of weather general knowledge briefings this year. The briefings aim at providing the average layman a greater depth of understanding about weather conditions and related impact to their own operation at the airport...
Online quiz to test your knowledge on weather observation To reinforce weather observation knowledge learnt by the members of the Hong Kong Air Scout and the Hong Kong Air Cadet Corps who joined the workshop on aviation weather observation, the Observatory launched an online quiz on weather observations and invited them for a self-challenge in March...
Click here for previous Issues

Pilot's Corner

Significant convection cases in late March and early April

The rain season in 2014 unveiled in a rather dramatic way, not only did it coincided with the Observatory's Open Day on 29 and 30 March, the extensive and intensive convection triggered both Red and Black rainstorm warnings on 30 March which marked the earliest Red and Black rainstorm signals in a year since the warning system started operation in 1992, and there were hail reports in many parts of the territory...

Latest Development

New alert criteria of the Airport Thunderstorm and Lightning Alerting System (ATLAS)

Starting from February 2014, criteria of ATLAS Amber alert based on lightning detection had been extended from 5km to 10km of the airport. The modification was introduced after consulting users and aims at better protection for aircraft maintenance staff that related work should stop when there is lightning activity within 10km of the airport...

New information introduced on the Significant Convection Monitoring and Forecast page

The Capacity Notification Message issued by the Air Traffic Flow Management Unit of the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department was added to the integrated Significant Convection Monitoring and Forecast page on AMIDS. The message provides an estimate of the Airport Acceptance Rate for the next few hours and the expected delay time for arrival flights...

Aviation specific contents on the Observatory's personalized website (my.weather.gov.hk)

The Observatory further enhanced the "Hong Kong Observatory Personalized website" with more contents that the user can customize. The latest update introduced a new set of tailored widgets under the aviation weather category including weather reports (METAR) and forecast (TAF) for the Hong Kong International Airport, plus the Weather Forecast for Local Aviation issued by the Airport Meteorological Office...

Earlier availability of Significant Weather Charts

Starting from end of March 2014, the prognostic significant weather charts issued by World Area Forecast Centres (WAFS SIGWX charts) were made available on AMIDS at approximately one hour earlier than before...

Collaboration

Pilots from Cathay Pacific Airways Limited visited the Hong Kong Observatory

The Cathay Cadet Entry Pilot Forum took a group of pilots to visit the Hong Kong Observatory (HKO) on 26 March. The group went to the Central Forecasting Office and the Studio to understand how weather forecasts were formulated and how TV Weather Programmes were prepared. The pilots and staff of HKO also took this opportunity to exchange views on...

Enhancing Regional Co-operation between Meteorological Services in support of Civil Aviation

As a regular event between the Civil Aviation Authority of China (CAAC) and the Observatory, Ms. Sharon Lau, Assistant Director of the Observatory, led a delegation of three to join the 6^th meeting of the Pearl River Delta Aviation Weather Working Group, held at Shantou, China on 22 and 23 April 2014...

Education and Training

General weather knowledge for the Airport Community

To promote meteorological knowledge within the airport community, the Observatory and Airport Authority Hong Kong joined hands and started a series of weather general knowledge briefings this year. The briefings aim at providing the average layman a greater depth of understanding about weather conditions and related impact to their own operation at the airport...

Online quiz to test your knowledge on weather observation

To reinforce weather observation knowledge learnt by the members of the Hong Kong Air Scout and the Hong Kong Air Cadet Corps who joined the workshop on aviation weather observation, the Observatory launched an online quiz on weather observations and invited them for a self-challenge in March...

Click here for previous Issues

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