WAFS Internet File Service (WIFS)
The World Area Forecast System (WAFS) Internet File Service (WIFS) provides approved users with access to aviation-related weather information required to support international air traffic management and flight operations. The United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) share in the local distribution of WAFS products and operational meteorological (OPMET) information through WIFS (US) and SADIS (UK).
WIFS is jointly managed and operated by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS) Aviation Weather Center (AWC). WIFS users must meet certain eligibility requirements (see Eligibility Requirements below) and be approved by the ICAO State and FAA WIFS Approving Official before accessing WIFS. Once the user access has been approved, the AWC will provide a user name and password to the applicant which will be required to access the data.
Eligibility Requirements
Access to WIFS is granted on a case-by-case basis as outlined in the WIFS User Guide (Section 4). In general, authorized users of WIFS shall meet one or both of the following requirements.
- Applicant performs international flight operations.
- Applicant supports international flight operations by providing and/or developing aviation weather information for such operations (i.e. flight document folder).
Access to the WIFS data requires a user name and password or an API key.
Documents
Users Guide
To view the User's Guide click here (Version 7.0, Feb 2024)
NOTE: Please check Advisories for updates that have not made it into the Users Guide.
WIFS API
Click here for more information and links to the new Application Programming Interface (API).
Products
WIFS hosts the following aviation weather products intended for international flight planning and documentation in accordance with ICAO Annex 3, Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation.
WAFS Grids (GRIB2)
Gridded model forecasts in General Regularly-distributed Information in Binary Form Edition 2 (GRIB2) format. Forecasts of the following fields are available every 3 hours from forecast hours 6 through 36 on two grid resolutions: 1.25x1.25 degree and 0.25x0.25 degree:
- Standard 1.25x1.25 degree grids
- temperature at 17 pressure levels (100 mb, 125 mb, 150 mb, 175 mb, 200 mb, 225 mb, 250 mb, 275 mb, 300 mb, 350 mb, 400 mb, 450 mb, 500 mb, 600 mb, 700 mb, 750 mb, 850 mb)
- geopotential height at 17 pressure levels (100 mb, 125 mb, 150 mb, 175 mb, 200 mb, 225 mb, 250 mb, 275 mb, 300 mb, 350 mb, 400 mb, 450 mb, 500 mb, 600 mb, 700 mb, 750 mb, 850 mb)
- U/V wind components at 17 pressure levels (100 mb, 125 mb, 150 mb, 175 mb, 200 mb, 225 mb, 250 mb, 275 mb, 300 mb, 350 mb, 400 mb, 450 mb, 500 mb, 600 mb, 700 mb, 750 mb, 850 mb)
- relative humidity at 5 pressure levels (500 mb, 600 mb, 700 mb, 750 mb and 850 mb)
- maximum U/V wind components
- height of maximum wind
- height of tropopause
- temperature at the tropopause
- Aviation 0.25x0.25 degree grids - blended GFS/UKMET
- turbulence (eddy dissipation rate) values 0 to 1 at 9 pressure levels: 148 mb, 197 mb, 250 mb, 301 mb, 344 mb, 393 mb, 506 mb, 595 mb, 697 mb
- icing severity values are categories 0 to 4: none, trace, light, moderate, severe; at 6 pressure levels: 301 mb, 393 mb, 506 mb, 595 mb, 697 mb, 812 mb
- Horizontal Extent of Cumulonimbus for the entire atmospheric column
- Height of the Cumulonimbus Base
- Height of the Cumulonimbus Top
The 0.25x0.25 degree grids are tiled into 8 regions:
- Europe - 30-90N, 30W-60E
- Africa - 60S-30N, 30W-60E
- Central Asia - 0-60N, 60E-150W
- Australia - 60S-0, 60E-150W
- North America - 15-90N, 150W-30W
- South America - 60S-15N, 150W-30W
- Siberia - 60-90N, 60E-150W
- Antarctica - 90-60S, 180W-180E
Significant Weather (SIGWX) BUFR and PNG Charts
Upper-air aviation charts that include jet stream locations, clear air turbulence, thunderstorm, and tropopause height. These are produced by forecasters at WAFC Washington and WAFC London.
SIGWX BUFR WMO Headers
WMO Header | Description |
---|---|
JUBE99 EGRR | WAFC LONDON CUMULONIMBUS CLOUDS FL250-FL630 |
JUBE99 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON CUMULONIMBUS CLOUDS FL250-FL630 |
JUCE00 EGRR | WAFC LONDON CLEAR AIR TURBULENCE FL250-FL630 |
JUCE00 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON CLEAR AIR TURBULENCE FL250-FL630 |
JUFE00 EGRR | WAFC LONDON SURFACE FRONTS |
JUFE00 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON SURFACE FRONTS |
JUJE00 EGRR | WAFC LONDON SURFACE FRONTS..LIMITED AREAS |
JUJE00 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON SURFACE FRONTS..LIMITED AREAS |
JUME00 EGRR | WAFC LONDON CLEAR AIR TURBULENCE FL100-FL450 |
JUME00 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON CLEAR AIR TURBULENCE FL100-FL450 |
JUNE00 EGRR | WAFC LONDON CLOUD..ICING..TURBULENCE FL100-FL450 |
JUNE00 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON CLOUD..ICING..TURBULENCE FL100-FL450 |
JUOE00 EGRR | WAFC LONDON TROPOPAUSE HEIGHT FL100-FL450 |
JUOE00 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON TROPOPAUSE HEIGHT FL100-FL450 |
JUTE00 EGRR | WAFC LONDON JETSTREAM FL100-FL450 |
JUTE00 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON JETSTREAM FL100-FL450 |
JUTE97 EGRR | WAFC LONDON TROPOPAUSE HEIGHT FL250-FL630 |
JUTE97 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON TROPOPAUSE HEIGHT FL250-FL630 |
JUVE00 EGRR | WAFC LONDON Volcanoes, Tropical Cyclones, Sandstorms |
JUVE00 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON Volcanoes, Tropical Cyclones, Sandstorms |
JUWE96 EGRR | WAFC LONDON JETSTREAM FL250-FL630 |
JUWE96 KKCI | WAFC WASHINGTON JETSTREAM FL250-FL630 |
SIGWX PNG WMO Headers
WMO Header | Description |
---|---|
PGAE05 KKCI | ICAO Area H Significant Weather FL250-FL630 |
PGBE05 KKCI | ICAO Area I Significant Weather FL250-FL630 |
PGDE29 KKCI | ICAO Area M Significant Weather FL250-FL630 |
PGEE05 KKCI | ICAO Area A Significant Weather FL250-FL630 |
PGGE05 KKCI | ICAO Area F Significant Weather FL250-FL630 |
PGIE05 KKCI | ICAO Area B1 Significant Weather FL250-FL630 |
PGJE05 KKCI | ICAO Area J Significant Weather FL250-FL630 |
PGNE14 KKCI | North Atlantic Significant Weather FL100-FL450 |
Volcanic Ash and Tropical Cyclone Advisories (PNG)
Graphics of volcanic ash produced by the nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers across the world. They are transmitted as PNG graphics. The same applies for tropical cyclone advisories even though at this time only advisories from Japan are provided.
Operational Meteorology (OPMET) Messages
- Traditional Alphanumeric Coding (TAC)
Alphanumeric messages consisting of routine aviation weather reports (METAR and SPECI), terminal aerodrome forecasts (TAFs), en-route hazardous weather warnings of significant meteorological information (SIGMETs), pilot reports (PIREP), volcanic ash advisory messages (VAA) messages, and tropical cyclone advisory (TCA) messages.
- International Weather XML Exchange Format (IWXXM)
Traditional OPMET products including METAR/SPECI, TAF, SIGMET, VAA and TCA are now being encoded in IWXXM format and being made available in a product by product basis and assembled into a compressed Unix tar file. Most products are in the latest available version (3.0). Here is a list of the WMO header prefix used by each product:
WMO Header | Description |
---|---|
LA, LP | METAR and SPECI |
LC, LT | TAF short and long range |
LS, LV, LY | SIGMET general, volcanic ash and tropcial cyclone |
LU | Volcanic Ash Advisory (VAA) |
LK | Tropical Cyclone Advisory (TCA) |
LW | AIRMET |
WIFS Directory Structure
Here is a list of the directories under "/wifs/data" and their contents:- ADMIN_MSGS
Administrative messages which announce new products, late products, system issues, etc.
- BUFR
BUFR encoded products
- SIGWX
SigWx data
- KWBC
US generated BUFR data
- EGRR
UK generated BUFR data (provided as backup for SADIS users)
- KWBC
- SIGWX
- GRIB2
GRIB2 encoded gridded data
- KWBC
US generated grids
- *.grib2
Wind/Temp grids at 1.25 deg.
- cat, cb, ice
Blended viation hazard grids for clear air turbulence (CAT), cumulonimbus height and extent, and icing potential. These are legacy 1.25 deg grids.
- *.grib2
Hazard grids at 1.25 deg.
- *.grib2
- cb_0.25, ice_0.25, turb_0.25
Blended viation hazard grids for cumulonimbus height and extent, icing severity, and turbulence severity (EDR). These are new 0.25 deg grids.
- *.grib2
Global hazard grids at 0.25 deg.
- *regX.grib2
Regional hazard grids at 0.25 deg. See regional tile locations above
- *.grib2
- *.grib2
- EGRR
UK generated grids (provided as backup for SADIS users)
- *.grib2
Wind/Temp grids at 1.25 deg.
- T+06, T+09, T+12,...
Wind/Temp grids at 1.25 deg broken down by hour (SADIS convention)
- CAT, CB, ICE
Blended viation hazard grids for clear air turbulence (CAT), cumulonimbus height and extent, and icing potential. These are legacy 1.25 deg grids.
- *.grib2
Hazard grids at 1.25 deg.
- T+06, T+09, T+12,...
Hazard grids at 1.25 deg broken down by hour (SADIS convention)
- *.grib2
- CB_0.25, ICE_0.25, TURB_0.25
Blended viation hazard grids for cumulonimbus height and extent, icing severity, and turbulence severity (EDR). These are new 0.25 deg grids.
- *.grib2
Hazard grids at 0.25 deg.
- T+06, T+09, T+12,...
Hazard grids at 0.25 deg broken down by hour (SADIS convention)
- *.grib2
- *.grib2
- KWBC
- IWXXM
IWXXM OPMET data, all files gzip compressed
- 5MINUTE
IWXXM OPMET data - 5 minute files, tar file of minute files - 36 hours
- HOURLY
IWXXM OPMET data - hourly files, tar file of twelve 5 minute files - 36 hours
- MINUTE
IWXXM OPMET data - minute files, tar file of IWXXM products - 36 hours
- *.tgz
IWXXM OPMET data - rolling files, tar file of minute files (30MIN, 60MIN, LAST HOUR use 5 min files)
- 5MINUTE
- OPMET-HOURLY
TAC OPMET data - hourly files - 36 hours
- OPMET-MINUTE
TAC OPMET data - minute files - 36 hours
- OPMET-ROLLING
TAC OPMET data - rolling files - last minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, and last hour
- PNG
PNG charts
- SIGWX
SigWx charts
- KWBC
US generated SigWx charts
- EGRR
UK generated SigWx charts (provided as backup for SADIS users)
- KWBC
- TROP
Tropical cyclone advisory charts
- VOLC
Volcanic ash advisory charts
- SIGWX
Support
WIFS is available for use 24x7. Between the hours of 7:00 am and 3:00 pm Central Time, Monday through Friday, live WIFS technical support is provided by the AWC. To contact AWC WIFS technical support, use the following email address and phone number.
Open a help desk ticket
Phone: +1 (877) 280-2811
Click here to view frequently asked questions.
If a message is sent to the WIFS Help Desk outside of normal hours, users can generally expect a response within three business days. If users require immediate help outside of WIFS Help Desk hours they should contact the NWS Telecommunications Operations Center Help Desk at +1(301) 713-0902.
WIFS Troubleshooting
Symptom | Probable Cause | Actions to Take |
---|---|---|
Data out of date, cannot be retrieved, or is not being properly displayed on the missing on the workstation | WAFS data retrieve process failed | Test the internet connection (Note 1) |
Check the data retrieve log file for errors (Note 2) | ||
Contact the WAFS workstation support team | ||
Data on WIFS is out of date | Test the internet connection (Note 1) | |
Browse to the WIFS online file list and check to see if data is up to date (Note 3) | ||
If data is out of date send an email to wifs.admin@noaa.gov and contact the NWSTG to report the problem (Note 4) | ||
There is a WIFS data ingest problem | Check the Advisories page for new advisories pertaining to data outages. | |
If data is out of date send an email to wifs.admin@noaa.gov and contact the NWSTG to report the problem (Note 4) |
- To test your internet connection, try the following URL in a browser: "https://aviationweather.gov". If the browser opens the page, you have a working internet connection. If it is not, contact your system administrator or your Internet Service Provider for assistance.
- If you don't know where this file is or how to access it, contact the WAFS Workstation Support Team (reference the WIFS Vendor POC Information list below).
- In your browser type in the following URL: https://aviationweather.gov/wifs/data. Click on the appropriate category and find the data you are looking for. Take note of the file name with the latest date/time.
- The National Weather Service Telecommunications Gateway (NWSTG) Helpdesk phone number is (301) 713-0902.
WIFS Vendor POC Information
GST - Global Science and Technology | IPS MeteoStar |
IES - Info-Electronics Systems | Morcom International |
Campbell Scientific France (Ex COROBOR Systems) | IBL Software Engineering |
MFI - Meteo France International | NetSys International (Pty) Ltd |
Advisories
NWS/TOC and NCEP/AWC Notices
Advisories
Status
On time | Delayed | Late | Missing |
---|---|---|---|
>4:35 | >5:00 |