Direct Weather Forecasts for Drone Operators

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Part 107 of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) rules for commercial drone operations in the US stipulates that pilots of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) must consult weather forecast data prior to taking flight.

A new partnership will utilize the cloud-based forecasting platform of IBM business, The Weather Company, along with drone navigation startup AirMap’s application for iOS and its APIs for developers.

According to ZDNet, the new partnership is aimed at delivering real-time, hyperlocal weather data directly to drone operators. The product will provide drone pilots access to weather data such as temperature, precipitation, pressure, and cloud cover.

IBM, owners of one of the largest private weather enterprises in the world, says the partnership comes at a critical time for the US drone industry. “Part 107 is a major milestone in drone regulation for visual line-of-sight operations,” says Ben Marcus, CEO of AirMap. “The availability of real-time hyperlocal weather data from The Weather Company will help today’s drone pilots avoid hazardous and severe weather, and will be absolutely critical for safe, efficient flight planning and operations of more autonomous, beyond visual-line-of-sight drones.”

The FAA regulations are part of a larger push to advance the US drone industry. However, they only cover drone deployments for certain use-cases. Drone delivery services, which are seen as the ultimate end game for companies such as Google and Amazon, still require further rule-making, according to ZDNet.