Airservices rolls out weather camera live views

Airservices has launched a website portal that allows pilots to check live camera views of weather conditions at six locations around Australia.

The portal initially features camera views at Archerfield airport, Kilmore Gap, Kingscoat airport, Launceston airport, Norfolk Island airport and Parafield airport, while Airservices says further camera locations will come online as it continues to work with the Bureau of Meteorology and airport operators to identify sites with the required existing power, communication infrastructure and camera equipment to allow the new service.

Apart from having the necessary infrastructure Airservices says the camera locations were based on a survey of pilots who were asked to rank locations where having realtime camera views would provide the greatest safety benefit.

In all 826 suggestions were submitted nominating 230 different locations, with both Kilmore Gap and Archerfield ranking highly in the survey, according to Airservices.

“I want to thank all those who participated in the online survey to identify those locations that the aviation community feels would most benefit from up-to-date visual weather assessments,” Airservices chief executive officer Jason Harfield said in a statement on Wednesday.

“This knowledge will help us with the next phase of the project in the coming months when we will focus on delivering camera infrastructure to the next round of sites.”