Meteomatics installs weather drones in Norway
St.Gallen - Meteomatics is to team up with the Norwegian Research Centre to install 30 weather drones with their own stations in Norway. These will collect weather data from the lower and middle atmosphere, which is particularly relevant from a meteorological perspective, across the country. The drones can fly at higher altitudes than the currently used weather balloons and will close a data gap.
Meteomatics, which is based in the St.GallenBodenseeArea in Switzerland, will team up with the Norwegian Research Centre (Norce) to install 30 weather drones known as Meteodrones in Norway, according to a press release. These will be distributed across the entire country in order to obtain weather information in even remote areas. Each drone will have its own station, called a Meteobase, and will conduct autonomous measurement flights in Norway, which has a complex geographical structure.
According to Meteomatics, the objective is to obtain more precise weather forecasts; this will, for example, enable severe weather events to be predicted further in advance. The company says that current weather models are constrained by a lack of observation data from the lower and middle atmosphere. These weather data, explains the press release, can only be collected with radiosondes on weather balloons, which cannot be navigated with precision and are expensive and unsustainable.
The Meteodrones can fly up to an altitude of 6,000 meters and will therefore close a meteorological data gap. The drones’ measurement flights record relevant meteorological factors such as temperature, humidity, air pressure and wind speed. Meteomatics AG develops and manufactures its technology in St.Gallen, Switzerland. ce/heg