VAAC Advisories

Overview

  • Domain Portfolio: Weather Imagery
  • Domain: Aviation
  • API Name: Vector Aviation VAAC Advisories - v2
  • Geography: Global
  • Attribution Required: NO
  • Attribution Requirements: N/A

The Feature Data Service (FDS) API provides geographic features for a number of products. The client can use these features to render a visual representation of data.

  • FDS provides geometric vector data where each feature can be a set of points, a polygon or set of polygons, a linestring or set of linestrings, or any other valid GeoJSON type
  • Each feature is described by a set of geographic coordinates and a set of properties.
  • Each feature is uniquely identified by the combination of its product key, feature key and valid time; the valid time is used to assign the feature to a unique feature set.
  • For additional details about FDS, please see the Weather Company Data | Data Visualization - Weather Imagery | Common Usage Guide

Using FDS products requires a multi-step workflow to retrieve the necessary data for the specific product data request. Step 2 requires the ‘time’ value parameter, found in the response from Step 1.

  • Step 1: Get Product Info - Provides time-based labels for the feature sets that are currently available.
  • Step 2: Get Features for a Single Tile - Provides all geographic features for a single tile, taken from a single feature set within a specific product.

HTTP Headers and Data Lifetime - Caching and Expiration

For details on appropriate header values as well as caching and expiration definitions, please see The Weather Company Data | API Common Usage Guide.

URL Construction

Step 1: Get Product Info
The [/products/{productKey}/info] request provides the labels for the feature sets that are currently available. These labels are required as input for the subsequent [/products/{productKey}/features] request, and they are invoked in that request’s ‘time’ parameter.
https://api.weather.com/v2/vector-api/products/6015/info?meta=true&max-times=12&apiKey=yourApiKey
Step 2: Get Features for a Single Tile

Required Parameters:productKey, time, lod, x, y, apiKey=yourApiKey || Optional Parameters: declutter, tile-size

https://api.weather.com/v2/vector-api/products/<productKey>/features?time=<time>&lod=<lod>&x=<x>&y=<y>&apiKey=yourApiKey

The [/products/{productKey}/features] request provides a set of features for a single tile, from a particular feature set within a particular product. Each feature contains a small set of key metadata properties, including its ID and valid time, which are required as input for any subsequent [/products/{productKey}/feature-details] request, as the ‘feature-id’ and ‘valid-time’ parameters.
https://api.weather.com/v2/vector-api/products/6015/features?time=1492016701805&lod=10&x=175&y=409&tile-size=256&apiKey=yourApiKey

Required Parameters:productKey, apiKey=yourApiKey || Optional Parameters: meta, max-times

https://api.weather.com/v2/vector-api/products/<productKey>/info?apiKey=yourApiKey

Product Data Dictionary: 6015 - Aviation VAAC Advisories

The source of the data is one of nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers worldwide. Each VAAC is responsible for providing Volcanic Ash Advisories whenever a volcanic event occurs in their area of responsibility. VAAC advisories are made available as they are received.

The JSON data includes the following fields:

Field

Found in the GeoJSON response, in each feature’s properties field

Description
advisory_num Volcanic Ash Advisory number
alert_coding Alert code
area_name Name of country or geographical region
eruption_details Details of eruption, emissions, ash cloud
icao_site_id VAAC ICAO code
id Unique identifier of the record
next_issuance Time of next advisory issuance
raw_data Raw Volcanic Ash Advisory data
remarks VAAC remarks
source Information source such as satellite imagery or webcam
upper_level_winds Direction and speed of upper-level winds
vaac_name Name of VAAC
valid_time Time of Volcanic Ash Advisory issuance
volcano_elev Summit elevation of volcano
volcano_id Volcano ID number
volcano_name Name of volcano