Fall Installation Planned for Oklahoma Airport Weather Monitoring Systems

Sacramento, CA (August 22, 2008) —Plans are on schedule to install state-of-the-art Automated Weather Observing Systems (AWOS) at three airports in Oklahoma this fall.  The unmanned AWOS systems–manufactured by All Weather, Inc. (AWI), a leading producer of weather information systems and meteorological sensors based in Sacramento, California–will provide continuously updated weather information to pilots and ground personnel at Blackwell-Tonkawa Municipal Airport near Tulsa, Clarence E. Page Municipal Airport outside Oklahoma City, and Stigler Regional Airport in eastern Oklahoma.

The AWOS, developed by AWI, is an unmanned system that monitors weather conditions and outputs the data continuously over ground-to-air radio and to a network of local and remote displays. A full array of parameters is measured and steadily updated by the AWOS, including wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, rainfall, visibility, sky condition, present weather, and thunderstorm activity.

“Oklahoma is subject to the full gamut of weather conditions–from ice storms to blazing heat to intense thunderstorms,” said Barbara Baca, U.S. Sales Manager for All Weather, Inc. “The combination of sensors used in the AWI AWOS makes monitoring of this vast meteorological variety possible. With their consistent and reliable reporting, our AWOS systems will be key in ensuring air safety in all conditions.”

Among its suite of sensors, the AWI AWOS includes state-of-the-art, heated ultrasonic wind sensors for measuring wind speed and direction. These sensors eliminate the problems encountered with many mechanical wind sensors, including freezing and bearing wear.

All three sites are also outfitted with AWI’s Dual Technology Visibility Sensor and Model 8339 Laser Ceilometer. AWI’s visibility sensors are used around the world in visibility and Runway Visual Range (RVR) applications to provide pilots and airport personnel with up-to-the-minute visibility data and trends.

The Laser Ceilometer uses laser pulses to detect clouds and measure the extent of cloud cover. Using sophisticated software algorithms, the AWI ceilometer is able to determine the height and depth of up to three layers of clouds.

“We’ve developed our AWOS over years of working closely with both large and small airports,” Baca said. “The technology we have now gives us a better chance than ever before of minimizing the aviation hazards associated with weather.”