TAMDAR (Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting) is a weather monitoring system that consists of an in situ atmospheric sensor mounted on commercial aircraft for data gathering. It collects information similar to that collected by radiosondes carried aloft by weather balloons. It was developed by AirDat LLC, which was acquired by Panasonic Avionics Corporation in April 2013 and was operated until October 2018 under the name Panasonic Weather Solutions. It is now owned by FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd.
History In response to a governmental aviation safety initiative in the early 2000s, NASA (Daniels, Tsoucalas), in partnership with the FAA, NOAA, and private industry, sponsored the early development and evaluation of a proprietary multifunction in situ atmospheric sensor for aircraft. The predecessor to Panasonic Weather Solutions, AirDat (formerly ODS of Rapid City, SD), located in Morrisville, North Carolina and Lakewood, Colorado, was formed in 2003 to develop and deploy the Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) system based on requirements provided by the Global Systems Division (GSD) of NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratories (ESRL), the FAA, and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The TAMDAR sensor was originally deployed in December 2004 on a fleet of 63 Saab SF340 aircraft operated by Mesaba Airlines in the Great Lakes region of the United States as a part of the NASA-sponsored Great Lakes Fleet Experiment (GLFE). Over the last twelve years, equipage of the sensors has expanded beyond the continental US to include Alaska, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, Europe, and Asia. Airlines flying the system include Icelandair, Horizon (Alaska Air Group), Chautauqua (Republic Airways), Piedmont (American Airlines), AeroMéxico, Ravn Alaska, Hageland, PenAir, Silver Airways, and Flybe, as well as a few research aircraft including the UK Met Office BAe-146 FAAM aircraft. Recently, an installation agreement has been reached with a large Southeast Asian airline as well. The TAMDAR system has been in continuous operation since its initial deployment in December 2004. In 2014, TAMDAR data began being implemented in the national mesonet program consisting of NOAA and its partners. In October 2018, Panasonic Weather Solutions was acquired by FLYHT Aerospace Solutions, which has integrated TAMDAR with its AFIRs hardware package for airplanes (providing real-time data transmission via satellite connection).
System capabilities TAMDAR observations include temperature, pressure, winds aloft, relative humidity, icing, and turbulence information which is critical for both aviation safety, the operational efficiency of the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS), and other world airspace management systems as well as other weather-dependent operational environments such as maritime, defense, and energy. Additionally, each observation includes GPS-derived horizontal and vertical (altitude) coordinates, as well as a time stamp to the nearest second. With a continuous stream of observations, TAMDAR provides spatial, temporal resolution, and geographic coverage. Upper air observing systems are normally subject to latency based on the communication networks used and quality assurance protocol. TAMDAR observations are typically received, processed, quality controlled, and available for distribution or model assimilation in less than one minute from the sampling time. The sensor requires no flight crew involvement; it operates automatically and sampling rates and calibration constants can be adjusted by remote command from a US-based operations center. TAMDAR sensors continuously transmit atmospheric observations via a global satellite network in real-time as the aircraft climbs, cruises, and descends. The system is normally installed on fixed-wing airframes ranging from small, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to long-range wide-bodies such as the Boeing 777 or Airbus A380. Upon completion of the installations scheduled for 2015, more than 6,000 daily soundings were produced in North America, Europe, and Asia at more than 400 locations.
Icing observations TAMDAR icing data provides high-volume objective icing data available to the airline industry. TAMDAR icing reports provide accurate spatial and temporal distribution of where icing is present. The icing data can be made available in raw observation form, or can be used to improve icing potential model forecasts.
Turbulence observations The TAMDAR sensor provides objective, high-resolution eddy dissipation rate (EDR) turbulence observations. This data is collected for both median and peak turbulence measurements and are capable of being sorted on a 7-point scale which are reported as light, moderate, or severe. The EDR data collection process does not depend on aircraft type or configuration, flight conditions, or load. This turbulence data can be used to alter flight arrival and departure routes. It can be added into models to improve predictions of turbulence conditions, as well as being used as a verification tool for longer-range numerical weather prediction (NWP) based turbulence forecasts. As with the icing observations, the potential utility of this data in air traffic control decision-making for avoidance of turbulence encounters can be significant for cost and flight time.
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