Michael McPartland and Timothy Bonin
Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington, MA, USA
Wind and temperature observations obtained from aircraft greatly improve the accuracy of numerical weather forecasts. Today, these data are primarily obtained through the Meteorological Data Collection and Reporting System (MDCRS). These data are provided by a limited number of large commercial jet aircraft primarily flying out of major airports on hub-and-spoke routes. Quickly ascending from or descending to airports, over 50% of their observations are taken at cruise altitudes above 20,000 ft. The result is very limited sampling in the lower and mid-troposphere over the majority of North America away from the major airports.
To supplement the MDCRS data, researchers and some governmental forecasting agencies, particularly outside of North America, are starting to incorporate atmospheric observations derived from aircraft of opportunity that can come from the large number of aircraft equipped with Mode S Enhanced Surveillance (EHS) transponders. If such aircraft are correctly interrogated for data, the returned data (e.g., Mach, ground speed, true airspeed, indicated airspeed, magnetic heading) can be used to estimate wind and temperature of the environment around the aircraft. Some of the great advantages of this data source are the large number of available observations, its near real-time availability, the large percentage of both commercial and non-commercial aircraft that are appropriately equipped, and that the routes and altitudes of many of these aircraft transect regions of the atmosphere that large commercial jets do not pass through, thus potentially filling many of the voids in currently observation-starved regions.
In this work, we will evaluate the accuracy and availability of Aircraft Derived Observations (ADOs) obtained by this method and the limits of these observations due to quantization. We will leverage data collected from six Portable Aircraft Derived Weather Observation System (PADWOS) sites located in the southern United States as part of a NOAA and MIT Lincoln Laboratory funded field campaign. The PADWOS was developed to perform the necessary interrogations to obtain the required data and create and distribute the wind and temperature estimates in near real-time.
ADOs of wind and temperature estimates from PADWOS will be directly compared to those provided through traditional MDCRS. We will discuss additional findings such as the surprisingly high percentage of appropriately-equipped aircraft (over 87%), the number of available observations compared to MDRCS (orders of magnitude more), the significantly reduced latency, and the increased vertical range and volumetric coverage available through the deployment of PADWOS.
[*] © 2024 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This material is based upon work supported by the Observations Program within NOAA/OAR Weather Program Office under Award No. NA23OAR4590397.
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