The first ever Council of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) MET panel meeting was hosted by FMI (10 – 12 Sep, 2019) to coordinate the ICAO designated global space weather service centers.
The three ICAO global Space weather Centers PECASUS Consortium, NOAA/SWPC and ACFJ had a coordination meeting at FMI in Helsinki. The meeting was attended by scientists from Australia, Canada, Belgium, U.K., South Africa and France, as well as from ICAO regional centers Russia and China. Brent Gordon (SWPC/USA) and Ari-Matti Harri (FMI) acted as chairmen, with the success of the meeting being also strongly contributed by Kari Österberg (FMI) and Kirsti Kauristie (FMI). During the event, FMI 24/7 weather and security services were introduced by Anssi Vähämäki, Tiera Laitinen and Antti Kokko.
ICAO designated three global space weather service centers to provide civil aviation with information on space weather that has the potential to affect communications, navigation and the health of passengers and crew.
In November 2018, the PECASUS (Pan-European Consortium for Aviation Space weather User Service) consortium led by FMI was selected to become one of the centers due to its high quality performance and successful and strong international work. The headquarters of the center is placed in FMI.
The countries forming the PECASUS consortium are Finland (Lead), Belgium, UK, Poland, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Poland, South Africa and Cyprus. Two other global centers are SWPC by the United States and ACFJ –consortium of Australia, Canada, France and Japan. The global centers will start their official operations in November 2019.
