Meteomatics received Extended-VLOS permission for their Meteodrones project
The innovative Swiss weather service provider Meteomatics received an extended version of the approval to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) from 2015. The extension includes the possibility of, under certain conditions, flying beyond visual line of sight also during the day instead of just being permitted to fly at night. The vertical limit of the permission remains at an altitude of 1500 metres above ground.
Due to this new approval, given by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), the company
is able to enhance their Meteodrones program distinctly. The goal of the Meteodrone project is to improve the high-resolution weather forecasting models by measuring meteorological parameters within the planetary boundary layer with the help of the UVAs. Significant improvements of the forecasts are especially expected for the phenomena fog and thunderstorms.
To the present day Meteomatics managed to measure more than 2000 soundings in hundreds of flight hours for specific locations in Switzerland (see samples). The new opportunity of flying and measuring during the day is a big step forward to close the data gap in existing weather models.
About Meteomatics:
Meteomatics is a company based in St. Gallen, Switzerland and offers meteorological products and services for industries such as the energy and trading sectors, which have a demand for extremely accurate weather forecasts. In these fields, Meteomatics has an excellent reputation of market-leading accuracy in temperature, solar power and wind power forecasts. The development of the Meteodrones is supported by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA), the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) and the STARTFELD foundation in St. Gallen.
