Over the last twelve years, equipage of the sensors has expanded beyond the continental US to include Alaska, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, Europe, and Asia.
Airlines flying the system include Icelandair, Horizon (Alaska Air Group), Chautauqua (Republic Airways), Piedmont (American Airlines), AeroMéxico, Ravn Alaska, Hageland, PenAir, Silver Airways, and Flybe, as well as a few research aircraft including the UK Met Office BAe-146 FAAM aircraft.
[6] TAMDAR observations include temperature, pressure, winds aloft, relative humidity, icing, and turbulence information which is critical for both aviation safety, the operational efficiency of the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS), and other world airspace management systems as well as other weather-dependent operational environments such as maritime, defense, and energy.
TAMDAR observations are typically received, processed, quality controlled, and available for distribution or model assimilation in less than one minute from the sampling time.
TAMDAR sensors continuously transmit atmospheric observations via a global satellite network in real-time as the aircraft climbs, cruises, and descends.
This data is collected for both median and peak turbulence measurements and are capable of being sorted on a 7-point scale which are reported as light, moderate, or severe.
As with the icing observations, the potential utility of this data in air traffic control decision-making for avoidance of turbulence encounters can be significant for cost and flight time.
Third-party studies have been conducted by NOAA-GSD, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and various universities and government agencies to verify the accuracy of TAMDAR data against that of weather balloons and aircraft test instrumentation, as well as quantifying the TAMDAR-related impacts on NWP.
Fine-scale regional forecast accuracy is dependent on a representation of the mid and upper-level atmospheric flow, moisture, and wave patterns.
TAMDAR data has been shown to increase forecast accuracy over the U.S. on the order of 30 to 50 percent for a monthly average, even for 3D-Var (GSI) models.
Likewise, the nature of the 30-day mean statistics dilutes the actual impact provided by TAMDAR's higher-resolution data during critical weather events.