Iridium Satellite is providing satellite data communications for an atmospheric data-reporting program that uses commercial aircraft to gather and transmit meteorological data, Iridium announced.

Airdat LLC, an Iridium value-added reseller, developed the Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting system, which uses weather sensors installed on commercial aircraft connected to an onboard Iridium satellite transceiver. The sensors measure humidity, wind, pressure, temperature, icing and turbulence conditions during flight. A built- in GPS receiver provides position, time and altitude. The observations are transmitted in real time to Airdat’s data center through the Iridium satellite network.

The system initially was deployed on 50 Saab 340 aircraft flown by Mesaba Airlines in the Great Lakes region. Airdat is expanding its coverage through similar agreements with Horizon, Republic, Chautauqua, Shuttle America, Piedmont and Penair. This will provide atmospheric data reporting of the continental United States with a total of more than 400 aircraft during 2007, Iridium said.

Airdat expects the number of aircraft equipped with the system to expand to more than 950 aircraft throughout the next few years.