U.S. Air Force Employs Iridium Satellite Communications
for Tactical Meteorological Observing System
The U.S. Air Force is completing the worldwide deployment
of more than 280 tactical meteorological data collection
systems. These systems use the Iridium network of 66
low-earth orbiting satellites to provide near-real-time
mission-critical weather data to war planners and decision
makers.
The system – called the “AN/TMQ-53 Tactical
Meteorological Observing System (TMOS)” –
with its embedded Iridium data modem, represents an
important improvement over legacy tactical weather systems.
In the past, tactical weather systems used slower manual
techniques to process, encode and transmit weather observations
from combat weather teams. Prior to the fielding of
the AN/TMQ-53, it often took up to 72 hours for a team
to establish a deployed weather network. The Iridium-based
system allows the teams to start transmitting weather
data from any location on the globe within an hour of
arrival.
The AN/TMQ-53 TMOS is a collection of weather sensors
connected to a computer and Iridium data modem. Its
modular design allows deployment as a stand-alone suite
of sensors or fully automatic suite, in a basic or enhanced
package. The basic configuration measures surface pressure,
temperature, dew point, wind direction and speed, Rh
and liquid precipitation. The enhanced configuration
also measures cloud base/heights/amounts, vertical visibility,
surface visibility, present weather, precipitation type
(liquid, frozen, solid) and lightning out to 50 nautical
miles.
NAL Research Corporation, an Iridium value-added manufacturer,
was the third-party integrator for the Iridium upgrade
in the TMQ-53, and provided technical support for the
development, evaluation and deployment of the new system.
NAL Research also developed a program for the Air Force
that reads output from TMOS and sends it in real-time
to a Department of Defense (DoD) weather database via
the Non-secure Internet Protocol Router Network (NIPRNet).
“The TMOS provides the same observation capability
in the field as in a base weather station,” said
Capt. Barbara Costa, team chief of the Terrestrial Collection
Branch at the Air Force Weather Agency, Offutt AFB,
Neb. “For the first time, deployed units have
constant, up-to-date information at their fingertips
to support warfighters.”
“The Iridium-based solution ensures the availability
of timely weather observations from any location on
Earth and frees up the MILSATCOM resources for other
important traffic,” said Dr. Ngoc Hoang, president
of NAL Research. “All levels of command can access
the weather database through a common network.”
“The TMOS makes it faster, easier and safer for
combat weather teams to do their important work of providing
current weather data to planners and field commanders
in support of their missions around the world,”
said Greg Ewert, executive vice president of Iridium
Satellite.
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19
December 2005 
