The authorities revealed the budget of their own weather forecast system for flights

Roshydromet will be allocated 1.6 billion rubles. in 2024–2026 to a supercomputer and the Russian system of area forecasts for aviation to replace the disabled global system. Authorities and carriers say the outage did not cause problems.

In 2024–2026, the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) will be allocated 1.6 billion rubles for the preparation of aviation forecasts necessary to support civil aviation flights, follows from the explanatory note to the draft federal budget for 2024 and the planned period 2025–2026.

Every year, 531.7 million rubles will be allocated for these purposes, including 50.7 million for the operation of the domestic zonal forecast system instead of the blocked international SADIS system and 481 million rubles. on the operating costs of the supercomputer that calculates such forecasts, follows from the document.

In March 2022, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Alexander Kozlov said that RUSSIA was “unilaterally disconnected” from the global aviation weather forecast system. “But in three days you developed and launched the production of your own products in the field of aviation forecasts, which meet world requirements,” Kozlov said then, addressing those present at the Roshydromet board.

The press service of Roshydromet confirmed to RBC that in March 2022, “due to the difficult geopolitical situation,” the flow of information from the global area forecast system SADIS to Russia stopped. In March 2023, the HEAD of Roshydromet, Igor Shumakov, said that with the launch of the third hydrometeorological apparatus “Electro-L” into geostationary orbit, which took place in February, Russia could completely abandon “imported information.”

What is SADIS

SADIS (Secure Aviation Data Information Service) is a system under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) used to transmit meteorological data for international air navigation. it is used in 116 countries. SADIS provides access to data and forecasts (winds, upper temperatures, maximum winds, humidity, turbulence potential, icing, etc.) from two World Area Forecast Centers in Washington and London . At the same time, the UK is the state provider of this system.

According to the ICAO document dated February 28, 2023 (.pdf), Russia (an ICAO member) was excluded from the list of SADIS users without explanation. The authorized user of the system in Russia, according to this document, was the Federal State Budgetary Institution Aviamettelecom of Roshydromet.

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The office of the ICAO Secretary General told RBC that countries created SADIS through the ICAO as a cooperative international system, “based on previously reached diplomatic agreements and technical agreements on the manner of its operation.” “As sovereign states, they have the sole discretion to review who can use the service and how, based on their current diplomatic considerations,” said a spokesperson for the ICAO secretariat. RBC sent a request to the UK Met Office , which is the operator of SADIS.

How Russia adapted to the shutdown

Russia now uses domestic products in the field of aviation forecasts, developed by structural divisions of Roshydromet, the press service of the Ministry of Natural Resources (Roshydromet is under its jurisdiction) told RBC. “The quality of the forecasts is at the highest level and is not inferior to foreign analogues,” the department assured.

The press service of Roshydromet clarified that the autonomous Russian zonal forecast system was put into operation “within a few days” after SADIS was turned off. “The production of maps of special phenomena and the formation of fields of meteorological parameters necessary for aviation at various flight levels continued,” the press service noted.

The Ministry of Natural Resources reported that the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia (an institution of Roshydromet), together with the Institute of Computational Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, has developed a global semi-Lagrangian finite-difference model for forecasting the fields of meteorological elements in a version with constant resolution (PLAV model). According to the institute, the model was introduced into the operational technology of the Hydrometeorological Center in 2010, and its improved version in 2016. The PLAV global forecast system is used for medium-term weather forecasts (up to ten days) and long-term forecasts (up to a season) across the globe, the ministry indicated. “Due to the suspension of access for Russia to the products of the World Area Forecast Center ( London), necessary for aircraft flights, the Russian Area Forecast System has been created, which uses the products of the global PLAV model,” the Ministry of Natural Resources and Natural Resources commented.

Has this affected flights?

“In its pure form,” the SADIS resource was not used by Russian airlines; carriers receive meteorological information from Roshydromet structures, an industry source told RBC. Thus, Rossiya Airlines receives meteorological information for the preparation and execution of flights either from an authorized meteorological body or from a provider of similar services - now this is Aviamettelecom and the State Medical Center of Roshydromet, a press secretary of Rossiya Airlines told RBC.

Pilots, by and large, don’t care what sources the company uses, says a pilot of a large Russian airline. In addition, the plane has weather RADAR, which helps pilots avoid dangerous weather conditions, and also has radio telegraphy: you can request weather data from the dispatcher or listen to radio stations, explains another pilot.

The third pilot of the Russian mainline airline told RBC that he did not notice any particular difficulties. “Of course, with the weather it was more profitable and economical to fly from foreign sources (they were undoubtedly more accurate), but we also receive reliable information from our domestic sources,” he claims.

Before the introduction of international sanctions, the situation with forecasts was better, says the flight DIRECTOR of one of the Russian airlines. “There were more imported aircraft flying in the skies of Russia, which automatically, through so-called transponders, provided wind, temperature, and other data to a common analysis center [abroad]. Now there are significantly fewer imported aircraft flying, the coverage of Russia by aircraft has decreased, so the information has become less accurate,” he explains.

Currently, weather data is supplied by Russian companies, including state meteorological services at each airport. “The information is complete and objective, it is updated approximately every half hour,” the aviation manager describes the situation. “Flight safety is not affected, it has become a little worse for the economy of flights,” notes the flight director , pointing out that the weather data supplier from London was better at calculating time and fuel consumption, down to the kilogram, for a particular flight, in particular, issuing recommendations at what altitude It's more profitable to fly. The accuracy of the calculations from the Russian company is still insufficient, the pilot complains, but points out that the situation has improved compared to what it was immediately after the refusal of Western providers.

RBC sent inquiries to the press services of the Ministry of Transport, Aeroflot, S7, Ural Airlines, Pobeda, and Utair airlines.

What will additional funding from Roshydromet be used for?

Additional expenses for 2024–2026 are due, in particular, to plans to expand the staff of highly qualified specialists for the development of the zonal forecast laboratory of the aviation meteorology department of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia, the press service of the Ministry of Natural Resources reported.

“Research work to ensure the Russian forecast system is carried out on the basis of state assignments from the subordinate institutions of Roshydromet,” the press service of Roshydromet clarified.

They also reported that the increase in operating costs to ensure uninterrupted operation of the supercomputer complex is associated with the end of warranty and technical support in 2023, the costs of which were included in the cost of the supply contract. “Financing is used to cover the costs of post-warranty technical support, including spare parts, tools and accessories, consumables , services of specialized organizations, wage fund for specialists in areas that were previously included in the contract price,” the press service clarified.

The new supercomputer of Roshydromet was put into operation in 2018. As reported on the department's website, the computing power of Roshydromet's supercomputer system has been increased by more than 30 times. The Cray/T-Platforms supercomputer system based on the XC40-LC supercomputer includes 976 computing nodes with two Intel Xeon E5-2697v4 processors, the machine description says. The contract was executed by T-Platforms and INLINE Technologies.

The total budget of Roshydromet, according to the draft federal budget, in 2024 will be 34.1 billion rubles. For 2023, the department was allocated 33.9 billion rubles, and for 2024, the current budget law provided for about 32.4 billion.