FLYHT to distribute complimentary TAMDAR data during COVID-19 outbreak

FLYHT Aerospace Solutions Ltd. will be providing worldwide meteorological organizations a temporary, free license to utilize Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (TAMDAR) weather data sets to help offset the recent decrease in accessible data.

As a result of the recent decline in global airline traffic amid the COVID-19 pandemic, airborne meteorological data collecting has decreased by more than 40 per cent as of March 20, 2020. This decrease has had a material impact on the ability of meteorological agencies worldwide to accurately forecast weather. To help agencies forecast more precisely during this challenging period, FLYHT has opted to temporarily license complimentary TAMDAR weather data to meteorological agencies worldwide for non-commercial use through its commercial partner, Synoptic Data PBC (Synoptic).

Synoptic is enabling and managing the distribution of the data to all World Meteorological Organization (WMO) members via the Global Telecommunication System (GTS). The technical set up and data facilitation will be implemented in collaboration with the United Kingdom Meteorological Office. It is anticipated that the additional data will help fill the gaps in airborne weather observations during this time of reduced air travel.

“The WMO Aircraft Based Observation Program has been aware of TAMDAR’s ability to supplement aircraft upper air atmospheric measurements since the first data results from the Great Lakes Fleet Experiment,” said Stewart Taylor, vice-chair of WMO ABO. “We are very grateful to FLYHT and Synoptic for making this data available since it will help us overcome current obstacles and carry on with our mission.”

Through its partnership with Synoptic, FLYHT currently provides TAMDAR weather data and AMDAR (Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay) over AFIRS (Automated Flight Information Reporting System) weather data to the National Mesonet Program (NMP), which is a program of record under the National Weather Service. The company’s commercial relationship with the NMP will not be impacted by the temporary licensing discussed above.