Aircraft position and weather data are collected, formatted, and relayed to ground from in-flight commercial jets. Data Acquisition and Control Unit in plane receives information from standard avionics data units, and provides scaling and storage. Normally, eight sets of data are acquired in 1 hour period and transmitted to satellite at precise time. Besides meteorological applications, system can locate and reroute aircraft into favorable winds to conserve fuel or aid search for downed planes.
Airborne meteorological data-collection system
NASA Tech Briefs ; 5 , 3
1981-01-01
Miscellaneous
No indication
English