TruFlite MyRadar Brings an Industry-Leading Weather Radar Nowcast to UAS Operational Decision Making

Weather phenomena such as the low-level jet (a quick moving narrow ribbon of air within the first 3,000 feet of the atmosphere), and pop-up showers and thunderstorms, are impactful weather events that pose a significant threat to both Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations. These weather hazards are not apparent to the operator until visible through sight or an unfortunate incident. Pop-up showers and thunderstorms may develop while flying, causing operations to cease. Uncertainty about what will happen with showers or storms in the next hour or two may cause a team to hang around waiting for a break in the weather only to never complete client requirements and flights that day. To understand how to better anticipate and manage flight risks in situations when the weather environment is unpredictable and unstable, TruWeather Solutions (TWS) has developed several tools to enhance weather understanding in rapidly changing environments.

Today’s standard aviation weather services were designed for where manned aircraft systems operate, around well instrumented airports, and generally above the weather in heavier and larger airframes. Additionally, current aviation weather data networks are not ideal for the UAS industry because they are too coarse to detect micro-weather hazard events that impact drone air worthiness and performance. To overcome these operational challenges, TWS has developed TruFlite subscription weather services that offer a host of customized micro weather real time data sets, predictions and decision tools to make better operational weather decisions. TruFlite does this by combining government, commercial and proprietary weather data from multiple weather sources to provide the most precise weather for a specific application, aircraft, payload, location, and time. TruFlite consists of many diverse capabilities that will significantly benefit UAS operators, businesses, airspace managers and decisionmakers, one of them being micro-weather real time precipitation detect and avoid.

Many people within the weather community are familiar with the weather radar application, MyRadar, that was created by ACME AtronOmatic. MyRadar and its flagship animated weather radar predictions is the leading weather radar tool that incorporates realtime and predictive weather data, and machine learning. TruFlite MyRadar will capture popshowers and thunderstorms as soon as they occur, and anticipate the dissipation of weather by displaying real-time predictive weather radar of how phenomena will evolve over the next hour in seven minute timesteps. This micro weather tool will aid UAS operators in understanding how precipitation and thunderstorms (and their associated hazards such as rapidly changing wind conditions, lightning, etc.) impact real-time operational decisions. Combining MyRadar with TruWeather overlays of our weather camera analytics and micro weather observation networks will improve real time and planning decisions for UAS flight operations. TruFlite MyRadar used in conjunction with other TruFlite predictive products such as MissionCAST, a Go/No Go UAS location specific weather prediction, and RouteCAST, a route risk and optimization analytic, make the TruFlite product suite the industry leader in micro-weather data and decision tools. TruFlite was built specifically for the drone industry by military veterans, technologists and scientists who poured 35 years of aviation weather knowledge into TruFite algorithms and products to maximize the user experience.

TruFlite MyRadar, TruFlite MissionCAST, and TruFlite RouteCAST are only a few weather offerings being unveiled in the first comprehensive digital weather intelligence platform for UAS operators. The digital platform, TruFlite V360 weather workbook, will provide a user interface that is simple, but powerful, allowing drone operators to conduct weather interrogation with micro weather data sets and analytic outputs to improve weather decisions. The web accessible V360 arrives to market later this fall and will act as a portable digital forecast assistant for use on a PC, tablet or phone and is in addition to TWS’s powerful suite of APIs available via a subscription service.

Watch out for announcements about the launch of TruFlite V360 and products such as TruFlite My Radar this fall.

By Taylor Trask, TruWeather Solutions UAS Weather Scientist