Responses to API requests are formatted as either:
- JSON. These describe the operation of the EDR API and the 'Collections’ which are available to download from the latest model update (which include a list of available datasets under each 'collection’ for the latest available model update).
- For the VAAC London QVA Gridded Data API, as NetCDF. These files contain the actual forecast data as grid points for the two gridded data collections:
- "qva_probabilistic": forecasts about the likelihood of ash concentration exceeding set thresholds (≥0.2, ≥2.0, ≥5.0 and ≥10.0 mg/m3)
- "qva_deterministic": forecasts about the expected ash concentration in mg/m3 as a deterministic gridded forecast.
- For the VAAC London QVA Products API, as IWXXM. These files contain the actual forecast data for the “qvaci_iwxxm” collection. It serves payloads in XML format as a set of polygons, each polygon representing the ash concentration when it exceeds set thresholds (≥0.2, ≥2.0, ≥5.0 and ≥10.0 mg/m3) for a specific timestep.
All the data sets will be provided covering the period from T+0 hour to T+24 hours at 3-hourly intervals from the time they are issued and will be updated every 6 hours while a significant ash cloud remains.
REAL WORLD EFFECT - Consumers of the Service (Airlines, Air Navigation Service Providers, National Met Services, and companies that supply flight planning software and geospatial data visualisation services for the aviation industry) obtain volcanic ash forecasts to inform their decision-making regarding:
- Volcanic ash hazard awareness and avoidance, for eruptions in the VAAC London area of responsibility (primarily Iceland);
- Predicting dosages of Volcanic Ash for aircraft engine and airframe service scheduling.