Meteorological Data Collection and Reporting System

Aircraft safety and operating efficiency are greatly affected by the accuracy of weather forecasting, which is limited by the availability of real-time weather observations—the basis for all weather predictive modeling.

ARINC's Meteorological Data Collection and Reporting System (MDCRS) is designed to support improved weather forecasting, particularly for upper-air wind and severe weather. First developed for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS) in 1991, the system collects and organizes up to 100,000 real-time, automated position and weather reports per day from participating aircraft. The data is then forwarded to the NWS World Area Forecasting Center in Maryland, USA, where it's used as input for their predictive weather models.

Observations are downlinked from the aircraft to MDCRS via the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS^®), which uses ARINC's GLOBALink/VHF technology, and ARINC's worldwide data communications network—AviNet^®.

By helping forecasters more accurately predict winds aloft and areas of severe weather, ARINC's MDCRS contributes to better flight planning; greater safety for aircraft, passengers, and crew; and industry cost savings.