NOUS41 KWBC 211615

PNSWSH

Technical Implementation Notice 11-56

National Weather Service Headquarters Washington DC

1115 AM EST Wed Dec 21 2011

TO:       National Weather Service Offices (NWS)

          Federal Aviation Administration Customers (FAA)

          Family of Service Subscribers (FOS)

          Other Customers of NWS Aviation Forecasts

FROM:     Cyndie Abelman

          Chief, Aviation Services Branch

SUBJECT:  SIGMET Format Test to be conducted on 

          January 24, 2012        

The NWS will test a future change to the Significant 
Meteorological advisory (SIGMET) format on January 24, 2012, 
at 1800 UTC. At the beginning of the second line of the SIGMET, 
the four letter identifier for the Flight Information Region (FIR) 
will be added before the full name of the FIR.  

For example, "OAKLAND OCEANIC FIR" will become 
"KZAK OAKLAND OCEANIC FIR".

Current US SIGMET below

KZAK SIGMET NOVEMBER 1 VALID 031800/031815 PHFO-

OAKLAND OCEANIC FIR ETC

Proposed change, note the beginning of the second line. 

KZAK SIGMET NOVEMBER 1 VALID 031800/031815 PHFO-

KZAK OAKLAND OCEANIC FIR ETC

If this test is successful, NWS will coordinate with the FAA 
for a future changeover date to the new format. 

Each of the three US Meteorological Watch Offices (MWOs) 
will issued the same test SIGMET and the cancellation SIGMET on 
Month DD, YYYY, beginning at 1800 UTC. See the example test 
messages below. 

WSPA01 PHFO 031800

SIGPAN

KZAK SIGMET NOVEMBER 1 VALID 031800/031815 PHFO-

KZAK OAKLAND OCEANIC FIR TEST TEST TEST. THIS IS A TEST SIGMET. 

Followed by the Cancelation SIGMET: 

WSPA01 PHFO 031810

SIGPAN

KZAK SIGMET NOVEMBER 2 VALID 031810/031815 PHFO-

KZAK OAKLAND OCEANIC FIR CNL SIGMET NOVEMBER 1 VALID 031800/031815. 
TEST TEST TEST. THIS IS A TEST SIGMET. 

This change is necessary to comply with the SIGMET format specified 
by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Annex 3, 
Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation.  The main 
purpose of this test is to ensure that automated computer systems 
can still ingest the updated SIGMET format.  

The three U. S. Meteorological Watch Offices (
        Aviation Weather 

        Center
        , Alaska Aviation Weather Unit, and Weather Forecast Office 
Honolulu) will conduct the test using the following SIGMET bulletins:

    AWIPS Identifier    WMO Heading    

    SIGP0#              WSPN## KKCI    

    SIGAK#              WSAK## PAWU    

    SIGPA#              WSPA## PHFO    

If there are active SIGMETs during the proposed date and time, the

test will still occur using a separate series identifier. 

If you have any questions, please contact:

    Michael Graf

    National Weather Service

    SSMC-2 Station 13314

    1325 East-West Highway

    Silver Spring , MD   20910

    301-713-1726 x117

    Michael.Graf@noaa.gov

National Technical Implementation Notices are online at:

    http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/notif.htm

$$