Orbital Micro Systems Partners with Satavia to Enhance Flight Safety and Reduce Aircraft Maintenance Costs

Dec. 13, 2017

Orbital Micro Systems Ltd. announced its partnership with Satavia, a leader in digital environmental intelligence, to deliver advanced predictive weather analytics for the airline industry. The announcement took place at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Conference in New Orleans. Satavia will utilize the high temporal resolution weather data provided by OMS to enhance its solutions which allow aircraft original equipment manufacturers and operators to minimize unscheduled aircraft maintenance caused by environmental factors.

OMS recently announced its inaugural satellite launch as part of its Global Environmental Monitoring Satellite (GEMS) program, which is scheduled for autumn 2018, in conjunction with the UK’s In Orbit Demonstration (IOD) program.

GEMS will scale to some thirty-five units on orbit, providing temperature, humidity, and precipitation data for a broad range of commercial applications. Its advanced miniaturized microwave sounders will provide global weather data at refresh rates of fifteen to thirty minutes at multiple points from the surface to beyond commercial aviation altitudes. Current weather data sources deliver data at refresh rates of three hours or longer.

“Satavia supported the OMS IOD project proposal and is preparing to be an early adopter of OMS data for operational atmospheric environmental modelling,” said Adam Durant, chief executive officer of Satavia. “Unscheduled maintenance of aircraft is disruptive and costly for airline operators. With OMS datasets, we can enhance our observational capability to identify and predict in-flight encounters with high-altitude icing, and other environment-related factors that can impact maintenance planning. Access to the enhanced atmospheric data from OMS satellites will enable operators to proactively schedule maintenance, and reduce costs and operational disruption.”

OMS chief executive officer William Hosack noted: “Satavia has been an excellent partner and advisor throughout the development of the GEMS program, providing feedback and insight for addressing the commercial aspects of space-based weather data applications. Satavia’s digital environmental intelligence application is one of many critical use cases in airline operations made possible by more accurate and timely weather data such as providing near real-time severe weather warnings that can help pilots and flight planners avoid costly turbulence and storms. We look forward to a mutually beneficial engagement with Satavia that will benefit all stakeholders in the aviation sector.”