AWC TAFs

Introduction

Basically, a Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (or Terminal Area Forecast, TAF) is a message with a defined format with the objective to report a weather forecast for a single airport and its vicinity. This international code was developed by the ICAO and approved by the World Meteorological Organization. Baseline data are common to all countries, but some sections of the code are subject to local variations. TAF messages are generally issued at every 6 hours and may have a validity of 12 hours, 24 hours or even 30 hours. The TAF is made by a human forecaster (no automatic observation is done) and its structure is very close to the METAR (refer METAR explanation), but some differences are noted.

Data Source Characteristics

Data Target Characteristics

  • Database management system: PostgreSQL

  • Database name: io_xpa_db

  • Database table: io_awc_taf

Data Processing

  • Repository: io-xpa-core

  • Script: run_io_xpa_core_aws

  • Task:

    • d_a (Load AWC weather data)

    • d_a_t (Load AWC TAF data)

Processing Steps:

  1. Load the airport data (all and the ones with an ICAO code).

  2. Load the AWC TAF data from the REST API using the JSON format.

  3. Store the TAF data in the database table io_awc_taf.

  4. Determine and store the nearest TAF airport.

For detailed processing steps, refer to the external repository: io-xpa-core

Configuration Parameters:

awc_weather_data_request_max_taf = 500
awc_weather_data_timeout = 10
awc_weather_data_url_taf = "https://aviationweather.gov/api/data/taf?ids={ids}%2CKORD%2CKBOS&format=json&metar=false&time=valid"

Contact Information

  • Website: The letter icon in the top right-hand corner of the website header Contact Us.