When you're in range of one or more of the 350+ PilotAware ATOM ground stations, your PilotAware receives METARs as a free flight information service.
Each ATOM station broadcasts the current METARs for every reporting station within 150 km, uplinking a new one every 15 seconds. You'll have the full set after about five minutes in range of an ATOM station. Weather data comes from contributing NOAA METAR stations.
Colour codes
Each METAR is colour coded by flight category.
- VFR: ceiling above 3,000 ft and visibility above 5 miles (including sky clear).
- MVFR: ceiling 1,000 to 3,000 ft and/or visibility 3 to 5 miles.
- IFR: ceiling 500 to below 1,000 ft and/or visibility 1 to below 3 miles.
- LIFR: ceiling below 500 ft and/or visibility below 1 mile.
METAR page
On Rosetta's web interface, the METAR page lists every reporting station in range in distance order, showing its flight category, distance, name and raw METAR. ICAO codes are translated into place names, so you might see Birmingham (EGBB) at 27 km, followed by Gloucestershire, Oxford and Brize Norton.
Using FX? See FX METARs.
METARs on the RADAR screen
METARs and wind barbs also appear on the PilotAware RADAR screen, helping you spot marginal conditions ahead and act on them. To see every station within 150 km you'll need to zoom out. Set the vertical filter to no more than 2,000 ft so the screen isn't swamped by high-flying airliners. For normal flying, zoom back in to a few kilometres so the screen works as an effective situational awareness display.
The yellow banner in the top-right corner of the RADAR screen cycles through three pieces of information: the number of ATOM stations currently detected (for example ATOM 2), the nearest METAR station and its distance (EGBB/27KM), and the QNH at that station (QNH992).
Wind barb symbols
