New NASA program

[astanley]

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050310/dcth023_2.html

The TAMDAR team has already validated the technology in previous ground and flight tests. The Great Lakes Fleet Experiment, started in January, is assessing the performance of the sensor on 64 Mesaba SAAB 340 aircraft. Mesaba Airlines is based in Minneapolis. The experiment is testing the sensors in an operational environment for the first time and is helping determine the value of airborne observations to aviation forecasts.

I wonder when us civilians will have direct access to this data... it would be really cool to be able to write some software that fleshes out TAMDAR data, METAR data, and the various weather models.

The second thing is... how will this affect PIREPS? Will commuter pilots not file PIREPS if they know they are flying a TAMDAR rig?

Cheers,

-Andrew