Airservices Australia (
http://www.airservices.gov.au
) is the designated authority for the delivery of aviation meteorological information to aviation industry users. Information for the purposes of flight planning is typically obtained using Airservices' National Aeronautical Information Processing System (NAIPS) accessed at
http://www.airservices.gov.au/brief/
You do not have to register to access our aviation website, but when you enter the site you will need to acknowledge that you understand that any information for flight planning purposes is to be obtained from Airservices Australia, as outlined above. Access to Airservices Australia's NAIPS does require registration for a login and password, details of which can be found at
http://www.airservices.gov.au/brief/
Please visit the Knowledge Centre using the link on the Aviation home page. The Bureau's Aviation Weather Services have produced a range of comprehensive brochures to help users gain a good understanding of typical aviation products. These are in PDF format and can be printed for ready access.
A number of brochures have been produced which cover some of the more common aviation weather phenomena and hazards that can be encountered, together with some material on operating in particular regions and locations. These can be found in the Knowledge Centre section of this website using the link on the Aviation home page.
AWIS information can be accessed via the
Location Info tab on the menu in this site.
Inclusion of the group AUTO indicates that the report is fully automated, i.e. there has been no human input to the message. Note that AUTO messages may include data from visibility, weather and cloud sensors.
This group only appears in METAR AUTO, i.e. fully automated messages. The NCD group reports that there has been Nil Cloud Detected by the cloud sensor.
This group reports rainfall in the last ten minutes and accumulated rainfall since 0900 local. For example, RF02.2/024.4 reports that 2.2mm of rainfall has fallen in the 10 minutes prior to the report time; and 24.4mm has fallen since 0900 local.
Upper temperature soundings are available in aerological diagram format via the 'Aviation Observations' tab on the menu in this site.
Brochures on Vertical Stability of the Atmosphere and The Skew T-Log P Aerological Diagram in the Reference Material section of the Knowledge Centre help explain the Aerological Diagram.