GLFE MEETING NO. 3April 12, 2004

TAMDAR Future Deployment Plans& Sensor/Performance Improvements

Mark Anderson

Agenda

• Present and Future Deployment Plans

• Airline Incentives and Services

• Recent Performance Improvements

• Data Quality Improvements

• High Resolution Data

• Improved AirDat Forecasting Results

• Next Generation Sensor Design Improvements

• Additional Sensor Certifications

Present and future deployment plans

• Mesaba deployment• Deployment completed on Jan. 15, 2005• 50 aircraft currently flying• 70 cities being served

• Horizon deployment• 67 aircraft currently flying

• 43 cities being served• Expanding fleet

• 80 aircraft will be equipped• Dash Q200s, Q400s, & CRJs

Horizon/Mesaba route structure

Present and future deployment plans

• In final contract negotiations with Airlines #3, #4, and #5

• In preliminary discussions with several other carriers

• Will provide complete CONUS coverage in addition to segments of Mexico and Canada

• Working with Army and Air Force for initial equipage of UAV’s

• Willing to support international deployments

Active deployment plansAirline No. of

AircraftCities

Sounding Location

Region

Mesaba 50 70 Midwest

Horizon 80 43 West Coast

#3 110 50 West, Alaska & Mexico

#4 140 78 Mississippi East

#5 55 55 East Coast

Totals 435 296 less duplicates

Air carrier incentives and services

• Essential to incentivize air carriers for equipage

• Utilize TAMDAR data pipe and data center to provide:• OOOI times

• Flight tracking

• Aircraft systems monitoring

• Text messaging

• Voice (backup) communications

• Antenna for cockpit weather

• EFB interfaces

TAMDAR airborne components

Note: Integrated antenna includes satellite weather reception

TAMDARSensor

Transceiver/Router

Voice Com Option

Text Messaging Option

Iridium/GPS/Wx Antenna

Data Buss Converter

Heading and Aircraft Systems

Inputs

GPS Iridium

Wx coax for optional weather cockpit display

(Coax) (Coax)

(RS-232)

Optional EFBs

Recent performance improvements

• Improved QA systems and flagging of suspect data• Run internal AirDat forecasts to monitor sensor

performance

• Upgrading Delta Hound system to identify suspect performance

• Meteorologist uses Delta Hound and other systems to monitor sensors

• Firmware improvements

• Hardware improvements

Recent performance improvements

• Improved temperature performance through characterization of probe thermal time lag• Incorporated compensation in TAMDAR firmware

• Improved RH performance• Replacement of suspect sensors• Re-orientation of outboard RH sensor• Beginning use of RH sensor with hydrophobic filters• Plans to incorporate RH time lag compensation

• Improved winds aloft flagging of suspect data• Upgraded sensor firmware to permit transmission of

high frequency sampling data

Historical Temperature Bias Statistics. Entire TAMDAR Fleet. TAMDAR-Model (RUC Dev2)

-1

-0.5

0

0.5

1

2005 Aug 2005 Sep 2005 Oct 2005 Nov 2005 Dec 2006 Jan 2006 Feb 2006 Mar

Month

Te

mp

era

ture

Bia

s i

n °

C

overall temp bias °c

ascent temp bias °c

descent temp bias °c

level temp bias °c

ascent-descenttemp bias spread °c

Historical Relative Humidity Bias Statistics. Entire TAMDAR Fleet. TAMDAR-Model (RUC Dev2)

-6

-5

-4

-3

-2

-1

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

2005 Aug 2005 Sep 2005 Oct 2005 Nov 2005 Dec 2006 Jan 2006 Feb 2006 Mar

Month

RH

Bia

s i

n %

ascent rh bias %

overall rh bias %

descent rh bias %

level rh bias %

ascent-descent rh bias spread %

Increased sampling resolution

• Original sampling was:• 10 hPa intervals on ascent and descent up to 100 hPa above ground

level

• 50 hPa intervals above 100 hPa above ground level

• New, higher resolution sampling• Waited for improvements in temperature, RH, and winds

• Initiated March 31, 2006

• 10 hPa intervals on ascent and descent up to 200 hPA above ground level

• 25 hPa intervals above ground level

• Expect sensor performance improvements and higher resolution to produce improved forecast modeling results

Improved forecasting model results

• Significant TAMDAR impact in AirDat/NCAR models

• High resolution TAMDAR data permits increased model resolution (sigma levels) resulting in skill improvements of more than 20%

• Improvements in precipitation forecast accuracy of 34-84% over various government models

• Preliminary results suggest better long range (>96 hr) ground temperature forecasts

• OSSE is underway • Optimization of TAMDAR data weighting

• Optimization of geographic deployment

Next generation design improvements

• Change to entry/exit holes to sensor cavity• Reduced contamination

• More reliable RH performance

• Pitot and static tube restrictions• Reduction of noise on pitot and static measurements

• Improved turbulence measurements/calculations

• Incorporation of NCAR turbulence recommendations

• Re-distribution of de-icing heating elements

Next generation design improvements

• Firmware upgrades• Ice accretion rate

• Temperature correction during de-icing

• Refinement of calibration constants

• Refinement of algorithms at high speeds

• Customized electronic filter time constants depending on properties of sensing element• Temperature

• RH

• Pressure

Next generation design improvements

• Extensive calibration at Rolls Royce wind tunnel

• Speeds from Mach 0.40 to Mach 0.85

• Sensing cavity pressures

• Pitot and static calibrations

• Mach heating

• High bandwidth data

Aircraft certifications

• Saab 340 completed

• In progress:• Bombardier Q200

• Bombardier Q400

• CRJ 700

• Will soon begin:• ERJ 135, 140, and 145

• ERJ 170

Summary

• Extensive North American deployment underway

• Multiple aircraft certifications in progress

• Continuing improvement of sensor performance and forecasting results.