Commercial Jets are Being Turned into Flying Weather Stations

Accurately Predicting the Weather is a Science that had Seen Tremendous Advances Over the Years but, Now a New System Using Commercial Airliners as Flying Weather Stations could Make Forecasting More Precise than Ever. The National Weather Service still Uses Old-Fashioned Weather Balloons to Take Measurements of Wind, Temperature and Humidity Twice a Day from 69 Different Locations around the USA. That Works Tolerably Well but, Imagine if you could Expand that to Thousands of Sensors Flying All over the Country 24 Hours a Day. That's the Thinking Behind a New Program that Leverages Data Sent from Commercial Jets Equipped with Special Weather Sensors. So Far, Southwest Airlines has Added the Sensors to 87 of its Boeing 737 Fleet, while UPS has Sensors on 25 Jets that Transmit Data in Real-Time Directly to the National Weather Service.


Instead of Having to Make Forecasts Using just 138 Readings per Day, the National Weather Service is Getting 50,000 Reports Every 24 Hours from a Much Wider Variety of Locations. Southwest Says that, Having the More Accurate Data Enabled them to Keep Flying during an Ice Storm in Dallas Last November, while Other Airlines with Less Precise Information Grounded their Fleets. As the Program Expands, this Type of Data Sharing will Help to Save Money for All of the Airlines and Reduce Flight Delays while also Making Flying Safer. American Airlines is Now Jumping into the Mix, with Humidity Sensors from Panasonic being Added to 225 of their Planes. I just Hope this News Doesn't Send Some of the Unhinged Conspiracy Theorists Over the Edge. Some of them already Believe that, the U.S. Government is Gassing Everyone in the Country with their So-Called Chemtrails so, Imagine What they will Think When they Learn that Airlines are Adding Sensors to All of their Jets.




Info Sources:

http://www.dvice.com/2014-6-25/www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/planes-will-become-flying-weather-sensors.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-19/airliners-become-weathermen-as-sensors-upend-forecasting.html#disqus_thread