THIRD MEETING

SADIS OPERATIONS GROUP

(Bangkok, 22-26 June 1998)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.	Introduction

1.1	The third meeting of the SADIS Operations Group (SADISOPSG) was convened in the Asia Pacific (APAC) Regional Office, Bangkok from 22-26 June 1998. The meeting was attended by twenty one experts from nine States and two international organizations, the Agency for the Safety of Aerial Navigation in Africa and Madagascar (ASECNA) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

1.2	Mr. R. Baumann, Switzerland chaired the meeting, and Mr. T.J. Potgieter, South Africa was elected vice-chairman of the group.

1.3	The agenda for the meeting is at the Appendix.

2.	Annual statement of SADIS operational efficacy and update of SADIS inventory

2.1	The group reviewed the operations of the SADIS during the year 1997/98 and concluded (Conclusion 3/7) that the operational efficacy of the SADIS had continued to be satisfactory, meeting all operational requirements. This review was based for the first time on responses by States to a questionnaire seeking their opinions on the operational efficacy of the SADIS and a management report produced by the SADIS provider State and service provider. As is customary, this information will be forwarded to the chairman of the (European) SADIS Cost Recovery Advisory Group ((E) SCRAG).

2.2	Only minor changes were made to the current inventory, but advice was provided to (E)SCRAG that additional costs were to be expected for the tests for the SADIS enhanced two-way VSATs once the actual sites for the two remaining two-way VSATs had been selected (see 4.1 below).

3.	Maintenance of the current SADIS broadcast and organization of the flow of OPMET message traffic

3.1	The group reviewed the current status of the SADIS VSAT installations, noting that, as of 1 May 1998, there where 71 SADIS VSATs installed in 53 States. Access to SADIS had been authorized for 86 States, and installations were being arranged in more than 20 additional States in 1998 and 1999. The content of the broadcast was reviewed and no changes were made except to arrange for a routine repeat of the newly introduced T+6HR and T+36HR forecast GRIB data.

3.2	The problem of "missing" SIGMETs on the SADIS broadcast was examined and steps taken to resolve it, based on existing ICAO regional mechanisms to deal with problems in AFTN communications.

4.	Development of the SADIS

4.1	The group spent considerable time on the arrangements for the testing of a small "network" of SADIS enhanced two-way VSATs, which was intended to lead to operational clearances by the SADISOPSG two-way operational clearance team. There were currently three SADIS two-way VSAT sites already installed: London, Pretoria and Zurich, and 2 (two-way) VSATs remained in the SADIS inventory for allocation to two further sites. Following identification of Cairo as an appropriate SADIS two-way site by APIRG, the group considered that Cairo could be proposed as a test site in order to test communications and traffic in the North Africa/Middle East area. It was considered that the fifth two-way VSAT test site should preferably be in western Asia. In this regard the group sought the assistance of APANPIRG (Conclusion 3/10) in selecting a suitable site. In line with the request in Conclusion 3/10, this will be the subject of a separate working paper for presentation to APANPIRG/9 in August 1998. The group also drafted a conclusion for endorsement by the APANPIRG, APIRG, EANPG and MIDANPIRG requesting States providing volcanic ash advisory centres (VAACs) to consider the installation of two-way VSATs so as to ensure that volcanic ash advisories (message and graphical) could be uplinked immediately on the SADIS or ISCS satellite broadcasts as appropriate.

Strategic Assessment Tables

4.2	The group noted that effective planning for the future of traffic loading on SADIS and the associated bandwidth required input from regional COM and/or MET sub-groups of the APANPIRG, APIRG, EANPG and MIDANPIRG. In order to achieve this, the group developed draft decision for endorsement by the APANPIRG, APIRG, EANPG, and MIDANPIRG requesting the relevant sub-groups' assistance by completing a set of strategic assessment tables annually prior to each SADISOPSG meeting.

Study on the use of SADIS for the collection and dissemination of AIS information

4.3	The group agreed that its initial report to EANPG/39 that it was technically feasible to collect and disseminate AIS information on SADIS was as far as it could progress the study, in the absence of an operational requirement specifying which type of AIS information might be involved. The group, therefore, drafted a conclusion for endorsement by APANPIRG, APIRG, EANPG and MIDANPIRG for the discontinuation of the study.

Institutional issues which could affect the future development of SADIS

4.4	As in previous meetings, the group noted that the SADIS voluntary cost recovery scheme contained to be narrowly based on membership from a limited number of EUR States. It was considered that any future proposals for the development of the SADIS, which may be agreed by the PIRGs concerned, could be constrained by the fact that only a limited number of EUR States were carrying the financial costs, even though the broadcast benefitted States in four regions. The group, therefore, developed a draft conclusion for endorsement by the APANPIRG, APIRG, EANPG and MIDANPIRG urging that States be encouraged to consider making a technical and financial commitment to the SADIS.

5.	SADIS user guide and amendment process

5.1	The group updated the SADIS user guide and agreed that an additional annex be included to assist users in locating in which bulletins particular aerodromes were listed (Conclusion 3/14).

6.	Future work programme

6.1	The group reviewed and updated its work programme and executive summaries for each task.

7.	Other business

SADIS web site

7.1	Under this item, the group agreed that a SADIS web site should be created by the SADIS provider State to provide general information abstracted from the SADIS user guide. The possibility of including the annexes to the guide on the web site would be subject to further study.

Y2K problem

7.2	The group heard a report from the SADIS provider State of the steps taken to ensure that the SADIS was Y2K compliant.