Predicting weather is still a dark art, right up there with picking the right anniversary gift or the fast-moving line at a grocery store. But a new sensor installed on a fleet of Southwest airplanes will provide an avalanche of new weather data, and do it in real-time.
With the help of Aeronautical Radio Incorporated (ARINC), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and SpectraSensors, 87 Boeing 737s have been equipped with Water Vapor Sensing Systems (WVSS-II) that keep tabs on humidity when the planes take off and land.
The WVSS-II systems aren’t new — they’re used by both meteorologists and aviation forecasters to determine everything from fog formation to cloud ceilings — but by mounting these sensors onto planes already buzzing around the sky, the amount of data will increase dramatically.
“The WVSS-II observations add a critical new piece of weather data to the forecasting puzzle,” says Jeannine Hendricks, ARINC’s manager for the program. “For the first time in aircraft operations, we are collecting water vapor data that measures the humidity in the air. This has the potential to revolutionize weather forecasting — especially when predicting thunderstorms — a significant weather occurrence for aviation.”
The ability to sample the moisture in the atmosphere — something that’s surprisingly under-sampled — and how those levels change between destinations will provide a new way of forecasting weather patterns, increasing accuracy and allowing NOAA and other agencies to get severe weather warnings out even earlier. And maybe even predict flight delays before you leave home for the airport.Go Back to Top. Skip To: Start of Article.