No Aircraft
Dispatch Dispatcher
Situational Awareness; Confusion; Communication Breakdown
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Equipment / Tooling; Company Policy
Several months ago the weather overlays in Flight Explorer were changed to eliminate redundant products in what I understand to be a cost saving measure. One of the changes was to our Worldwide IR Sat image (we no longer get cloud top data in terms of altitude). Also; our World Wide Lightning Data overlay was now provided by WSI. As it turns out WSI has no coverage for lightning data in South America at all and that was in no way communicated to the Dispatch group. After seeing a highly unusual number of what appeared to be very quiet days over the equator in recent weeks; I finally took it upon myself to compare our data with the WSI Meteorologists data. It appeared to be the same. I thought it was unusual to see so many Convective Sigmet boxes with no lightning anywhere on the continent. They agreed. A call was made to the WSI offices and they confirmed that they have no coverage in South America. I asked if it is indeed their data we were using in Flight Explorer for world wide data. They did not know. I sent an email to the management group who confirmed that WSI was our provider for lightning data world wide.  I informed them they never had data for South America which they didn't know. Cloud top data combined with lightning data is the only reliable way to provide crews with information in regards to thunderstorm activity in areas where there is no weather radar coverage. The lack of lightning data and the fact that the Dispatch group was never informed that this region no longer has coverage has caused many flight crews to be led to believe that there was very little activity enroute over South America when that has not been the case.  As a result; FAR 121.601 a and b have not been properly complied with. During the flights; I did not provide the crews with information that may affect the safety of the flight such as thunderstorms because the decision was made to switch to a product that was not equal to the previous one and I was never informed. I was led to believe they were equal.
A Dispatcher realized that his dispatching tools did not provide South American cloud cover and lightning data overlay information which prevented him from complying with FAR 121.601 (A)(B) regarding pilot/dispatcher weather briefing about convective weather.