TAMDAR Units To Observe Weather.
Iridium Satellite
announced last week that it will provide satellite data links for
an atmospheric data collection and reporting system that will be
installed on regional airline aircraft. This program is designed to
improve the quality of weather forecasting.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the
National Weather Service, Forecast Systems Lab, the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) will all be working together on this
program. AirDat LLC will equip 64 Saab 340 turboprops with patented
Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Report (TAMDAR)
sensors.
The TAMDAR sensor measures humidity, wind, pressure,
temperature, icing and turbulence conditions about every 300 feet
as the aircraft climbs.. A GPS receiver ouputs the position, time
and altitude as the sensor observations are transmitted to the
AirDat data center using the Iridium data link.
The airplanes are flown
by Mesaba Airlines, Based in Minneapolis. This first demonstration
is called the Great Lakes Fleet Experiment. It is the first step in
a nationwide deployment plan.
"The Mesaba aircraft collectively make more than 400 daily
flight segments, yielding 800 vertical soundings and about 16,000
TAMDAR observations per day," said Jay Ladd, CEO, AirDat in a news
release. "This will yield a real-time stream of rich atmospheric
data for forecasting models that is orders of magnitude greater
than currently available from radiosondes and other sources.
Preliminary analysis reveals the TAMDAR data is providing
significant improvement in the accuracy of atmospheric forecast
models."
"We believe we can achieve complete coverage of the continental
United States with 400 to 600 aircraft in key regions," Ladd
said. "Weather forecasting agencies in other countries are
monitoring the TAMDAR deployment, and Iridium's global architecture
will facilitate seamless expansion to other regions."
Regional passenger carriers are being used for TAMDAR sensors
because they make shorter trips and fly at altitudes below 30,000
feet. Because they climb and descend frequently, they provide
numerous sensor readings along the way.
The Iridium datalink
can also be used to provide two-way data links with the aircraft to
get automated operational reports from the aircraft. AirDat
expects to add email text messaging soon.
"We are very pleased to be working with our valued partner
AirDat to develop this exciting solution, which has enormous
potential to enhance safety for the entire aviation industry, as
well as making an important improvement to the world's weather
forecasting capabilities," said Don Thoma, executive vice president
of Iridium Satellite.