Volcanic ash alone is an Urgent PIREP. A report of volcanic activity includes as much information as possible, including the name of the mountain, ash cloud and movement, height of the top and bottom of the ash, etc.

Example:

Urgent PIREP, 240° at 75 NM from Anchorage International Airport, Anchorage, AK, 2110 UTC, FL370, a DC-10 reported volcanic ash, remarks, volcanic eruption occurred at 2008 UTC Mount Augustine, ash 40 NM south moving south-southeast.

The SKYSPOTTER program is a result of a recommendation from the “Safer Skies” FAA/Industry Joint Safety Analysis and Implementation Teams. The term SKYSPOTTER indicates a pilot has received specialized training in observing and reporting in-flight weather phenomena or PIREPs.

When a PIREP is received from a pilot identifying themselves as a SKYSPOTTER aircraft, the additional comment “/AWC” is added at the end of the remarks section of the PIREP.

An AWC-WEB/xxxx in the remarks indicates the PIREP was submitted by an airline dispatcher or CWSU meteorologist directly to the AWC. The “xxxx” represents the airline abbreviation or ARTCC of the CWSU that submitted the PIREP.

Example:

AIREPs are messages from an aircraft to a ground station. AIREPs are normally comprised of the aircraft’s position, time, FL, ETA over its next reporting point, destination ETA, fuel remaining, and meteorological information. It is beyond the scope of this document to describe the details of all the elements in the AIREP, but this section will focus on the meteorological information.

The AWC’s website provides AIREPs over the CONUS and portions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

There are two types of AIREPs: routine or position report (ARP) and special (ARS). AIREPs can be reported by the pilot, but the majority of routine AIREPs are automated and downlinked from the aircraft to a service provider (e.g., a flight planning company) for processing and forwarding to an airline and the NWS.

The majority of AIREPs report wind and temperature at selected intervals along the flight route, derived from onboard sensors and probes. Some aircraft are equipped with sensors and probes to measure humidity/water vapor, turbulence, and icing data.

The format for the AIREP is governed by the WMO and ICAO. The AWC’s website includes AIREPs on their PIREP web page that is formatted for web display, with some weather elements decoded.

The following examples are from the AWC’s website. The actual airline’s call sign was replaced with a fictitious call sign, and the Special AIREP was created from the routine report.