Planes Improve Weather Forecasts

Reported December 2007

HAMPTON, Va. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Our sky is filled with all types of weather, it’s also filled with airplanes -- some facing rough weather head-on. Now, some weather forecasters are using these planes to make better weather predictions.

"One of the big jumbo jets which flies, can cruise around 30, 35-thousand feet, that altitude way up there is way above the weather,” Taumi Daniels, Aerospace Engineer at NASA Langley Research Center said.

But smaller, low flying aircrafts come face-to-face with bad weather daily. Now, forecasters are taking advantage of the weather these planes experience, with a new tiny on-board device, called TAMDAR.

“TAMDAR is important because it is mounted on these smaller aircraft. These aircraft don’t fly up above the weather,” Daniels said.

Most weather information above ground level is collected from satellites and weather balloons. The new device detects moisture at level as the plane flies, which is an important ingredient in forecasting severe weather.

“For a complete understanding of the atmosphere in order to improve weather forecasts, you need to know where the moisture is and where it’s moving,” Daniels said.

Developed by aerospace engineers at NASA, the device measures humidity, temperature, winds, ice and turbulence. Satellites collect the information and send it remotely to weather centers on the ground, providing better, more up-to-date local forecasts.

“It does it all in one small compact package that can be installed easily onto any airplane.” Daniels said.

It's being installed on over 400 planes flying shorter, daily routes, providing meteorologists more weather information, more often.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc., and the American Meteorological Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Dr. Taumi Daniels, Electrical Engineer
NASA Langley
(757) 864-4659
taumi.daniels@nasas.gov

American Meteorological Society
(617) 227-2425
http://www.ametsoc.org

For more information about the latest technologies that measure the weather:

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
Inc. IEEE-USA
(202) 785-0017
http://www.ieee.org
ieeeusa@ieee.org

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