NOTAM or NoTAM is the quasi-acronym for a "Notice To Airmen". NOTAMs are created and transmitted by government agencies and airport operators under guidelines specified by Annex 15: Aeronautical Information Services of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (CICA). The term NOTAM came into common use rather than the more formal Notice to Airmen following the ratification of the CICA, which came into effect on April 4, 1947. Notices to Airmen were normally published in a regular publication (for example: Flight Magazine in the UK) by each country's air authorities. A number of developments and amendments to the CICA have resulted in the more automated system available today.
A NOTAM is filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of any hazards en route or at a specific location. The authority in turn provides a means of disseminating relevant NOTAMs to pilots.
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NOTAMs are issued (and reported) for a number of reasons, such as:
Aviation authorities typically exchange NOTAMs over AFTN circuits.
Software is available to allow pilots to identify NOTAMs near their intended route or at the intended destination.
In the U.S. Air Force information technology enterprise, C4 NOTAMs (Command, Control, Communications and Computer Notices to Airmen) are notices of new or updated Air Force Network Operating Instructions (AFNOIs). Often, these notices serve to direct Air Force computer administrators to install security updates or change the configuration of computer systems.[1]
In Joint Task Forces NOTAMs is the common term for "Notice to All Members."
The following describes ICAO NOTAMs, which may be different from US Domestic NOTAMs. Caution - NOTAMs are published using all upper case letters that make reading them difficult. Additionally, NOTAMs are poorly controlled and not all NOTAMs are issued using the required standards:
The first line contains NOTAM identification (series, sequence number and year of issue), the type of operation (NEW, REPLACE, CANCEL), as well as a reference to a previously-issued NOTAM (for NOTAMR and NOTAMC only).
The 'Q' line holds (basic-remove) information about who the NOTAM affects along with a basic NOTAM description. This line can be encoded/decoded from tables defined by ICAO.
The 'A' line is the ICAO code of the affected aerodrome or FIR for the NOTAM. The area of influence of the NOTAM can be several hundreds of kilometres away from the originating aerodrome.
The 'B' line contains the start time and date, the 'C' line the finish time and date of the NOTAM. The date is in a USA date format of YY/MM/DD and the times are given in Universal Co-ordinated Time; also known as GMT or Zulu time.
Sometimes a 'D' line may be present. This gives a miscellaneous diurnal time for the NOTAM if the hours of effect are less than 24 hours a day. E.g. parachute dropping exercises tend to occur for short periods of a few hours during the day, but may be repeated over many days.
The 'E' line is the full NOTAM description. It is in English but heavily abbreviated. These abbreviations can be encoded/decoded by tables defined by ICAO.
When present, 'F' and 'G' lines detail the height restrictions of the NOTAM. Typically SFC means surface height or ground level and UNL is unlimited height. Other heights are given in feet or flight level or a combination of the two.
This is a typical NOTAM for London Heathrow airport:
This decodes into the following:
In United States, NOTAMs are classified by the FAA into five categories:[2]