Obtaining meteorological data from aircraft with Mode-S radars

Abstract

In this article we analyze the quality of meteorological data collected with Mode-S radars. During a 5-month period we collected meteorological data with a Mode-S radar and compared it with corresponding radiosonde measurements. We developed a method for gathering the data from Mode-S radars and generate atmosphere profiles for wind and temperature. Air traffic control uses upper wind tables generated by numerical weather prediction (NWP) models for flight path calculations. The profiles that we generate from Mode-S radar data can be a relatively good substitute for these tables.