Weather briefings and COPs
Surface analyses, fronts, isobars and significant weather as live overlays on a common operational picture.
Where it fits
The environment, on the same map as the operation
Weather and ocean conditions shape every plan, but they usually arrive as an image or a separate product. The library puts the standard's METOC graphics on the map the application already has, as data it can save, share and edit.
Aviation planning
IFR and MVFR areas, turbulence, icing, thunderstorms and the jet stream along the routes being planned.
Maritime and mine warfare
Ice, depth curves, hazards, aids to navigation, currents and the mine warfare bottom descriptors in the standard's exact colors.
Operators at the edge
The same graphics in WinTAK and ATAK, exactly, and as plain shapes on any other TAK client.
Working software
Every graphic, the way the standard draws it
These come from the sample application's Sample gallery, one group at a time. Pips, dots and other decoration keep their size on screen at every zoom, and fronts curve through the points the operator places. Click a picture to enlarge it.
Display and add-ons
Start with display, add what the mission needs
The library comes in five packages. The display package draws every graphic on a 2D map. Four add-ons take the same graphics further: editing, Cesium 3D, TAK and official feeds. Each add-on needs only the display package, so a program takes the ones it uses and leaves the rest out.
Display
Early accessThe catalog and the paint layer, with display renderers for OpenLayers and MapLibre. It needs no map library at its core, so it also runs in Node, a worker or a test runner.
- All 354 graphics, with their names, entity codes and 30-digit SIDCs.
- GeoJSON in, GeoJSON out: save one feature per graphic and restore it exactly.
- Validation that reports what an operator should hear about, such as a self-crossing outline or a barb with no direction.
- Thumbnails drawn by the paint layer itself, so a picker can never disagree with the map.
- The standard's colors, an operator color only where Table M-II leaves it open, and a default line color for dark and imagery maps.
- Point symbols in three sizes, and on MapLibre in 3D, upright on leader lines clear of the terrain.
Editor
Early accessDrawing and editing on any of the engines. The gesture rules are written once, and every renderer gets them through the same seam.
- Draw, move, reshape, insert and delete points, nudge with the arrow keys, and duplicate.
- Flip a front's side, rotate a wind barb by its shaft, and fill in a station plot: wind, sky cover, temperature, dew point, pressure, its tendency and present weather.
- Undo and redo by gesture: a drag is one step.
- A registry of the inputs each graphic's properties dialog offers: its value, date-time label, color, dashing and fill.
Click to enlarge
Cesium 3D
Early accessEvery graphic on a Cesium globe, draped over terrain and 3D Tiles, and edited with the same editor as the 2D engines.
- Line work and fills follow the ground; point symbols stand upright on leader lines above the terrain, and labels face the screen.
- Decoration is repainted at screen size when the camera settles at a new scale, without flicker.
- Real terrain without Cesium ion, from the public Terrarium tiles or a mirror.
- Cesium is handed in, never bundled, so an application keeps one copy.
Click to enlarge
TAK
Early accessThe graphics to TAK as Cursor on Target, so every client sees them, plus WinTAK and ATAK plugins that draw them exactly.
- Plain CoT shapes for any TAK client: pips, scallops and barbs as they are drawn, and point symbols as a TAK icon set.
- The WinTAK and ATAK plugins hide those shapes and draw the graphic itself, from a description the first shape carries.
- Draw, edit and share METOC graphics in WinTAK and ATAK with one pane design: search and Recent, a drawing card with Undo, Cancel and Finish, and properties applied as they are made.
- Live two-way with TAK Server Data Sync missions from the web app, through a bridge that holds the TAK certificate so the browser never sees it.
- TAK data packages, KML and KMZ, written in Node too, so a server can produce them.
- The plugins as released builds: a folder for WinTAK 5.8, and an APK for ATAK-CIV 5.8.0 signed through the TAK Product Center for the Play Store ATAK.
Click to enlarge
Feeds
Early accessOfficial analyses and observations turned into METOC graphics, ready to display, edit or send to TAK. The converters need no network or browser, so they run on a server.
- The NWS Weather Prediction Center's coded surface bulletin as pressure centers with their pressure, fronts and troughs.
- Aviation Weather Center G-AIRMETs and SIGMETs as icing, turbulence, IFR and thunderstorm areas, labeled with their heights.
- METARs as station plots.
- What Appendix M has no graphic for is left out, not drawn as something else.
For technical teams
A graphic is a feature, not a picture
Each graphic saves as one GeoJSON feature: a Point, a LineString or a Polygon of the points the operator placed, with a metoc property for its name and value. Nothing about the view is stored. The renderers paint it fresh at every zoom.
import { MetocGraphicName, MetocCollection, metocFeature }
from '@zaes/metoc';
import { MetocOpenLayers }
from '@zaes/metoc/openlayers';
// Points in drawing order: it sets a front's pip side.
const front = metocFeature(
MetocGraphicName.ColdFront,
[[-80, 40], [-90, 42], [-100, 41]]
);
// Wind is data: degrees true and knots.
const barb = metocFeature(
MetocGraphicName.WindBarb, [[-97.5, 35.4]],
{ windDirection: 270, windSpeed: 65 }
);
const collection = new MetocCollection();
collection.load({ type: 'FeatureCollection',
features: [front, barb] });
new MetocOpenLayers(map, collection);No map library at the core
The display package's root runs in a browser, a worker or Node. OpenLayers and MapLibre are optional peers, and Cesium is handed in by the application.
One seam for every engine
Each renderer is a map host: where things are on screen, pointer and key events, and an overlay. The editor attaches to a host, which is how Cesium got editing.
Observations plot directly
A wind barb is a Point with a direction and a speed, and a station plot adds sky cover, temperature, dew point, pressure and weather, drawn as the WMO station model around Appendix M's own symbols. Isopleths carry their value; the barb rounds to the nearest five knots.
Across the antimeridian
A graphic drawn across 180° is saved continuous and painted the short way on every engine, and folded back into ±180° for KML, CoT and TAK.
| Package | What it provides |
|---|---|
@zaes/metoc | The catalog, the paint layer, GeoJSON save and load, validation, SIDCs, thumbnails; display renderers …/openlayers and …/maplibre |
@zaes/metoc-editor | Drawing and editing on any engine, undo and redo, the properties-field registry |
@zaes/metoc-cesium | The Cesium renderer, draped on terrain and 3D Tiles; Terrarium terrain with no ion |
@zaes/metoc-tak | CoT for every TAK client, the WinTAK and ATAK plugins, data packages, KML and KMZ |
@zaes/metoc-feeds | WPC surface bulletins, AWC G-AIRMETs and SIGMETs, and METARs as METOC graphics |
Standards and testing
Drawn from the standard's own tables, and tested against them
The library follows MIL-STD-2525E Change 1 (March 2025), Appendix M: Table A-LI and A-LII for names and entity codes, Table M-II and M-III for each graphic's color and drawing, and Table M-I for the draw rules. Automated tests pin every drawable code of both symbol sets to the standard, and every label its notes document.
Zaes does not claim government certification or independent conformance validation. Programs should perform the review appropriate to their mission and configuration.
Symbol set 45
Atmospheric: pressure centers, fronts, pressure lines, winds, isopleths, areas of weather, cloud cover, weather, storms, turbulence, icing and the state of the ground.
Symbol set 46
Oceanographic: ice, depth and coast, ports and harbors, aids to navigation, hazards, bottom features, tide and current, bioluminescence, beach slope, mine warfare and maritime limits.
30-digit SIDCs
Every graphic with an entity code has a 2525E SIDC, and a SIDC reads back to its graphic. The wind barb has a draw rule but no entity code in the standard, so none is invented.
Exact where color is meaning
Where a color is the information, such as a bioluminescence level or a bottom category, it is the exact RGB the standard prints, and no palette moves it.
The standard's errors, stated
Where a table contradicts itself, the library follows the name and the drawing and records the discrepancy with the graphic.
Not done yet
On ATAK, sending into a Data Sync mission: its edits go to the TAK servers ATAK is connected to, and a mission's graphic is revised in place. iTAK and WebTAK show the plain CoT shapes.
Coverage
Browse all 354 graphics
The catalog lists every graphic by symbol set and category, with its entity code, each drawn by the library itself. Search by name or code.
Tell us what your operators need to see
Send us the mapping environment, the weather and ocean data you have, and where the graphics have to go. We can set up an evaluation and tell you where Zaes could help with the integration.