In-flight weather from ESA

I just wanted to post the same link .

If I understand correctly, that’s still a research project without readily available commercial applications?

What exactly is the physical form? They mention a “Planet terminal” but I can’t find any info there.

An interesting idea in this project is that they want to automatically collect pireps. I was also thinking about such features but judging from experience you would need at least several thousand equipped aircraft in Europe to collect a significant amount of data. Beyond that the data link device would need a connection to the air data computer. Further information like flight conditions and icing would have to be entered by the pilot. Finally the satellite charges for collecting the data have to be paid for. Most pilots will not want to pay for sending off a pirep.

It is strange they want to work with “Iridium or Inmarsat”. These networks are so different that the whole service needs to be designed in a totally different way using one or the other.

They will need to take up Islam to usefully deal with Thuraya on a serious product or service

What data could be collected without pilot interaction? They already get winds and presumably the OAT from airliner ADS-B transmissions, all over Europe.

And almost nobody will be reporting icing unless they are flying a plane certified for icing conditions

And almost nobody will be reporting icing unless they are flying a plane certified for icing conditions

The vast majority of aircraft operating above FL100 are certified for flight in icing conditions. If they alone would report icing, that would be sufficient. Lots of airliners and larger bizjets have automatic ice detection systems, it would be quite easy to transmit their measuments together with the other data.

However, those planes are flying fast and much of the time, when a 100-150kt SEP would be happily turning into an icicle, they won’t ice up at all due to aerodynamic heating.

At a TAS of 350kt the temp rise is about 15 degC and no icing at all is possible (in non-convective conditions).

So PIREPs from the bigger jets are of little value to light GA.

But maybe this outfit is happy with that – who knows?

So PIREPs from the bigger jets are of little value to light GA.
bq. But maybe this outfit is happy with that – who knows?

The pictures on that web page are all of light GA, and the copy mentions “Planet2 extends to business and regional aircraft.” If they are only aiming at airliners then someone needs to have a word with their marketing department

However, those planes are flying fast and much of the time…

But not so much during climb and descent, especially below FL100 where a 250kt speed limit applies almost everywhere. So if every airliner would only submit icing encounters between ground level and FL100 to 150 a large part of light GA aircraft would get all the data they need. On the other hand, even airliners do not fly through icing conditions if they can fly around it…