Planes Could Be New Weather Sensors

Being efficient is about maximizing what you have at the moment, doing it right within the shortest time possible, although being efficient might not necessarily be the best course of action when it comes to relationships. Having said that, commercial airliners might have one more hat to wear the next time they take to the skies – that of a flying weather station, in an effort to increase the accuracy in weather forecasting for the future, never mind that existing technologies have been rather accurate to date.

The National Weather Service does make use of weather balloons right now in order to take note of the wind, temperature and humidity twice a day, ranging from 69 locations that are dotted all over the U.S. It works well enough, but what happens when those sensors will multiply by the thousands literally, flying as they make their way across the country round the clock?

This is what this new program is all about, where it leverages data which has been sent from commercial jets that have special weather sensors equipped on them. To date, Southwest Airlines have seen 87 of its Boeing 737 fleet sport such sensors, while UPS has installed similar sensors on 25 of their jets. All of the data collected will be transmitted to the National Weather Service in real time, which means they have a greater pool of information to make a more correct and accurate prediction.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: plane