Observing Systems
| GSD operates and maintains the Ground-Based GPS Meteorology project, currently consisting of more than 300 GPS water vapor observing systems that provide near real-time integrated precipitable water vapor (IPW) measurements for weather forecasting, climate modeling, observing system calibration and validation, and research. This project also provides raw GPS measurements to the NOS/National Geodetic Survey Continuously Operating Reference Station Network and the NWS Space Environment Center. | |
| GSD is supporting NOAA’s investigation into the potential use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the near space environment for a variety of science and operational missions. Such missions may include weather prediction, climate change, global-scale vertical resolution and profiling, atmosphere-ocean-land exchange processes, land surface and ecosystem monitoring, storm tracking, fisheries research, coastal zone imaging and sampling, satellite verification, and ground truth measurements. | |
| GSD uses the term ACARS to designate automated weather reports from commercial aircraft. These data are routed by several cooperating airlines to GSD, and we decode and quality control the data. Our Web site also includes AMDAR data from many European and Asian air carriers. | |
Tropospheric Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (TAMDAR) -- External Web Site |
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| GSD, in cooperation with the National Weather Service and NASA, is in the midst of a 6-month evaluation of a new weather sensor designed for installation on regional commercial aircraft. The sensor, called TAMDAR for Tropospheric Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay, was developed by AirDat LLC under contract with NASA. The TAMDAR sensor measures temperature, winds aloft, humidity, turbulence, and icing, all of which can affect aviation safety. | |
| A Global Profiling System for Improved Weather and Climate Prediction. Alexander E. MacDonald, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 2005. | |
| This system is being developed by the Information Systems Branch - Scientific Applications Group to supply end users and suppliers of hydrometeorological observations with readily-available quality control information and statistics. | |
| This project (formerly the Shear-Directed Balloon Project), is developing a long-duration platform, instrumented for environmental sensing through a combination of dropsondes, expendable bathythermographs, in-situ sensors, and remote sensors. Designed as a 110-ft diameter superpressure vehicle carrying a payload of 500 pounds for year-long flights at 65 000 ft, GAINS is targeted to meet NOAA's observing and monitoring mission in the next century. | |
| This project seeks to develop a regional mosaic of WSR-88D data on a 3-dimensional Cartesian grid. Wide-band radar data are used for this mosaic of reflectivity, radial velocity, and derived U and V wind components. The mosaic can be used for display purposes as well as numerical model input. | |
| Along with the Environmental Technology Laboratory and the Environmental Modeling Center of NCEP, FSL participated in a two-year study of the potential impact of a wind-finding lidar that could be flown on a polar orbiting satellite. | |