Satellite delivery of meteorological forecast data for aviation (SADIS)

The SADIS project was sponsored by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) through the UK Civil Aviation Authority to the Met Office. ICAO saw the need to rapidly disseminate forecast data on a global basis as a need to improve air safety and flight planning. The SADIS system uses satellite technology to distribute high-quality, up-to-date meteorological information to aviation users over a large proportion of the globe. The hub station equipment is installed at the Mercury Communications Earth Station at Whitehill in Oxfordshire and has dedicated land lines linking it to the UK Met Office in Bracknell. Bracknell is one of only two World Area Forecast Centres (WAFCs) in the world, the other being in Washington. The VSAT terminals, so far supplied to customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Far East and Australia, receive the SADIS data for display on forecaster workstations. Two thirds of the worlds population lie within the footprint of SADIS, which spans the globe from Western Ireland to Western Australia. This coverage is provided at C-band by the global beam of Intelsat 604 located in geostationary orbit at 60/spl deg/E. To aid the Met Office in collecting meteorological data, the SADIS network also contains 2-way VSATs which enable aviation meteorological collecting centres to send their own locally-sourced meteorological data back to the UK for re-transmission over the SADIS broadcast network.