Australian Bureau of Meteorology to deploy Vaisala’s next-gen sounding systems

Environmental and industrial measurement specialist Vaisala has been contracted by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) to deliver and install 13 Vaisala Autosonde AS41 automatic sounding systems, with the first setup scheduled for March 2019. In addition to the automatic sounding systems, the agreement includes the supply of Vaisala’s RS41 radiosondes and an option to acquire additional solutions. Installation of the first 13 systems is planned for completion within the next three years. With the Vaisala automatic sounding system, national weather services can extend the coverage of their upper-air networks to geographically remote and hard-to-reach locations and thus develop a more comprehensive synoptic upper-air program. Vaisala’s automatic sounding systems enable national meteorological and hydrological services to free up resources for safety-critical forecasting operations. “The system allows fully automated sounding operations with low operating costs, remote flexible operation as well as easy installation,” said Bryan Hodge, general manager, observing systems and operations, BoM. “The new AS41 will allow for 60 upper air soundings to be performed automatically with a work effort of half a day. Vaisala provides us with a service tailored for our specific needs with reliable support and thus increases the efficiency of our daily operations.” Aki Lilja, director of soundings product area, Vaisala, added, “We can provide many customized services from our predefined catalog of service activities. The automatic sounding systems provide the users with a safe working environment, fast and easy loading as well as an enhanced remote-control system.” Over the last 25 years, Vaisala has delivered 80 automatic upper air sounding systems which have conducted more than half a million successful soundings.