TACMET - A Commercial, Versatile Automated Weather Observation System for Demanding Tactical Military Needs

The US Air Force had identified the need for a quick-deployment automated weather station in support of US Army and USAF operations worldwide. The challenge to potential suppliers was to provide a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) System that could be easily shipped, quickly-deployed, and be field upgradeable with a broad range of sensors (including full aviation support capability in METAR format). In February 1999, Vaisala was awarded the contract to supply the USAF with this new generation Tactical Meteorological (TACMET) Observation System. Units are currently in production.

This paper will present a discussion of the needs of tactical military forecasting, performance requirements, and the solution the TACMET offers. Descriptions will be presented in text, diagrams, tables, photos and actual METAR data. The system uses COTS sensors, data collection platform, and PC-based presentation software. This is the first time a combination of traditional METAR surface observations and other parameters have been automated for remote tactical use.

The TACMET system is a field-deployable, compact weather station, capable of monitoring three general types of environmental parameters: meteorological parameters (air temperature, wind, humidity, pressure, precipitation accumulation); ground/lighting conditions (soil moisture, soil temperature, ambient illumination); and aviation support parameters (cloud height and cover, visibility/precipitation type, thunderstorm/lightning). The system is designed to be capable of quick deployment worldwide, and operate in tactical situations under various environments.

The TACMET systems are based on Vaisala's MAWS Mobile Automatic Weather Station. Up to three systems can be connected to the Windows NT based workstation via hardwire and/or radio modems. The workstation takes care of numerical and graphical data display, coding of aviation weather report METAR, archiving and transmitting data for further processing. Also, a hand held display is provided for viewing measured and calculated data in the field.