THE accuracy of weather forecasts is severely limited by a lack of information on the weather in more remote areas such as the deserts, polar regions and over the oceans.
In a recently filed patent, however, Boeing suggests a way to provide the missing data: equip as many commercial and military aircraft as possible with advanced weather radar to measure the wind speed and direction as they fly the world’s air lanes ().
The measurements would then be beamed back to a central computer – like Japan’s weather modelling supercomputer, the Earth Simulator – which would then update its weather models.
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Boeing says the constantly updated data stream could greatly improve the accuracy of weather forecasting.
