All Weather, Inc. (AWI), a leading manufacturer of weather information systems and meteorological sensors, has been selected by the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission to spearhead its upgrading of weather monitoring at 11 airports. AWI's advanced Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) continuously monitors weather conditions at airports and provides up-to-the-minute data to airport personnel and pilots. The AWI AWOS systems are scheduled to be installed this year ahead of winter weather.
The AWOS, developed by AWI, is an un-staffed system that measures current weather conditions at an airport, including wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, rainfall, and barometric pressure.
The North Dakota airports will also be outfitted with AWI's Laser Ceilometer. These instruments use laser pulses to "see" cloud cover. Using sophisticated software algorithms, the AWI ceilometers are able to determine the height and depth of up to three layers of clouds above the airport.
A series of Dual-Technology Visibility Sensors alongside the airport's runway will provide data for calculating Runway Visual Range (RVR), a highly accurate measure of visibility from a pilot's perspective.
The 11 airports chosen to receive the new weather systems are Carrington, Cavalier, Cooperstown, Crosby, Grafton, Harvey, Langdon, Linton, Oaks, Rugby, and Watford City.