IMS4 Remote Observer significantly enhances the current scope of automated weather observation. AUTOMETAR currently contains some weather elements reported in simplified form or omitted completely. IMS4 Remote Observer also supports human MET Observer in observation of some weather parameters suffering from the observer’s subjectivity and thus enhances the quality of weather observation in general. It enables also to compose standard METAR messages remotely (e.g. from a central office or home office).
Large distances, challenging topography, the need for efficiency of airport operations, and quality requirements - all these factors put pressure on the airport's Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS) performance at small or medium-sized airports. The level of automatization offered by the current state-of-the-art AWOS systems is not sufficient to address the observations of the weather phenomena, cloud coverage, and prevailing visibility (especially in inhomogeneous situations such as patchy fog, fog or dust raised differently in various directions, different cloud cover above ceilometer and in the airport vicinity, etc.).
IMS4 Remote Observer (Camera-Based system with AeroVis/AeroCloud solution), in combination with the standard AWOS system, enables full remote MET observations. By employing automated recognition and image processing, a fully automated solution for cloud and/or prevailing visibility observations is also available.
Validated as a solution for the Single European Sky ATM Research PJ.05 project (SESAR), IMS4 Remote Observer also brings the possibility to centralize MET observations at multiple airports/observation points supporting the cost-effectiveness of airport operations.