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Meteorological services for the civil aviation

BULATSA, in its capacity as a certified provider of air navigation services, provides Aeronautical Meteorological Service (MET), which is performed in accordance with the requirements and recommended practices of ICAO, European and local legislation. The provision of MET contributes to increasing the safety, regularity and efficiency of civil aviation.

The Aeronautical Meteorological Service provided by BULATSA includes the performance of the functions of Aerodrome Meteorological Office (АMO) and Aerodrome Meteorological Stations (AMSt) for the international airports of the Republic of Bulgaria, and the function of meteorological watch office for Sofia Flight Information Region (FIR).

The competence of Aeronautical Meteorological Personnel (AMP) is maintained and verified in accordance with the requirements of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and covers the standards of training, qualification and competence described in documents WMO DOC No. 1205 and WMO DOC No. 1083.

Users of aeronautical meteorological services are:

  • Aviation operators and flight crew members.
  • The Air Traffic Service (ATS) units.
  • Search and rescue services units.
  • Airport operators and administrations.
  • Other organizations related to civil aviation for which meteorological information is necessary in the performance of their activities.

To perform the functions of an aerodrome meteorological station, BULATSA has five Automated Weather Observation Systems (AWOS) located at all international airports on the territory of Bulgaria. The AWOS configuration includes sensors for measuring wind, temperature, humidity, pressure, visibility, cloud base and quantity, condition of the runway (RWY) at Sofia Airport, amount of precipitation, and a system for determining meteorological phenomena. For each of the airports are produced and distributed regular and specific information reports: METAR, Met Report and Special Report.

In fulfillment of the functions of aerodrome meteorological services for the airports of Sofia, Varna, Burgas, Plovdiv and Gorna Oryahovitsa, BULATSA produces and provides the users with TAF weather forecasts, landing forecasts and airport warnings.

Specialized meteorological service is provided for low-altitude flights through GAMET forecasts, regional minimum pressure forecasts and hazardous meteorological phenomena information AIRMET.

The Meteorological Watch Office (MWO) performs continuous monitoring of the meteorological conditions in Sofia FIR and, should there be dangerous for aviation meteorological phenomena, issues the respective warnings. MWO regularly issues and distributes forecasts for the ATS units, forecasts required for airspace capacity planning and forecasts for the tCat system.

Weather conditions monitoring in the flight information region is supported by:

  • Two doppler meteorological radars, located near the village of Vakarel, Sofia County, and in the area Aksakovska panorama, near Varna airport.
  • Information from MSG geostationary satellites of the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites EUMETSAT.
  • Prognostic numerical models.
  • Information from the European Lightning Detection Network.
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