Plane Sensors Offering Better Forecasts

AirDat says U.S. air marshals aboard planes could use the same satellite transmitters on the planes to send and receive messages while flying; they cannot do that now. In the case of a hijacking, such communication would be valuable.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expects within the next 60 days to pay for at least 30 weather sensors on planes in what is likely to be its first round of such purchases. AirDat and rival ARINC Inc. of Annapolis, Md., are the lead contenders for the contract. The companies use similar technology with important differences.

ARINC, which runs an expansive air-to-ground messaging network for major airlines, already collects wind and temperature information aboard 1,600 mostly large passenger jets; they commonly cruise higher than 40,000 feet and fly from bigger airports.

The company is working to add sensors that can detect water vapor, but it declined to disclose details of its plans, citing the pending U.S. contract. Some of its planes are cargo haulers that fly overnight, when most passenger planes are grounded.

AirDat's sensors are carried aboard 64 regional commuter planes across the Midwest flown by Mesaba Airlines. AirDat also has agreements with other carriers - Horizon Airlines, Piedmont Airlines, Peninsula Airways and Republic Airways Holdings - to install its sensors on more than 425 additional regional planes.

Regional planes typically cruise at lower altitudes, where bad weather forms, and fly into a broader variety of smaller airports than do large passenger jets. They also land and take off more frequently.

"The preliminary results are very promising," said NASA's Daniels. "This sort of data will make an impact if the weather is bad. You will see an improvement in the forecasting."

Back in Virginia, the balloon launched near Dulles International Airport climbed slowly and drifted northeast with the winds for hours, before bursting over the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland some 54 miles away. Throughout, it transmitted data back to forecasters from a small device attached to its tether.

In the old days, Meadows explained, the balloons used hydrogen and data was transmitted by radio signals. Today, helium is used and the balloons are tracked by modern Global Positioning Satellites.

If the plane-based system is fully deployed, the balloon launches probably will continue in some form to ensure data is collected even when planes are grounded.

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On the Net:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration: http://www.nasa.gov

National Weather Service: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

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