Meteorological Technology: Modelling the atmosphere

The Met Office works across all areas of the aviation industry to help ensure safe and efficient operations. Dr Helen Wells, Manager of the Aviation Meteorology Research and Development Team at the Met Office, provides an overview of the services provided.

The Met Office provides a wide range of services which include specialist websites, forecaster telephone and on-site consultancy and high-resolution data services to name just a few. These services are tailored to meet the needs of various users so that they have the most accurate information relevant to supporting their weather-dependant decision making, and adding further value by simplifying the interpretation of meteorological conditions and their impact on airport, aircraft and air traffic management operations.

To provide accurate forecasts we first need quality observations from around the world which can be fed into our supercomputers using a Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model. This uses well established physical equations to produce a forecast for our atmosphere for up to 30 days ahead.

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