WDT delivers atmospheric remote sensing solutions integrated into a single display and alerting interface.  WDT’s Radar Wind and Temperature Profiling System (RWTPS) utilizes a microwave profiling radiometer built by Radiometrics Corporation, which provides continuous vertical profiles of temperature and water vapor.  

The RWTPS also utilizes a wind profiling radar built by DeTect-Inc, which measures both horizontal and vertical components of the wind in a vertical column.  The data collected by these two instruments mimics what would be retrieved by an in situ measurement from a balloon borne radiosonde.  While radiosondes have been used for decades and continue to be used all over the world, these newer remote sensing instruments offer high frequency, automated updates on the order of minutes, allowing certain decision makers to use them for nowcasting purposes. 

A web-based display, to view soundings and time-height cross sections of the profile data, has been built by WDT.  This display also provides detection of weather hazards such as low-level wind shear, fog, inversions, and low clouds.  These tunable algorithms provide crucial warnings to forecasters supporting air traffic control and ground operations at airports, where the low-level atmospheric conditions must be monitored closely to support approaching and departing aircraft.  Forecasters are also provided with a sounding toolkit for further analysis and interrogation of the data from these two instruments. 

View of the RWTPS web display, showing time-height cross section of the horizontal wind.

WDT has now deployed the RWTPS to two international airports in the Middle East and another in Southeast Asia, with several additional systems planned for 2016. To learn more about WDT’s RWTPS, please visit us at booth 322 at the AMS Conference in New Orleans this week, or at Meteo Expo in Ankara, Turkey later this month.