Aviation Needs Atmospheric Intelligence
Air traffic operations increasingly rely on high-quality environmental awareness. Airports need continuous insight into cloud and visibility hazards, while airlines and industry partners are developing operational approaches to reduce non CO2 climate effects such as persistent contrails. In both areas, decision makers face the same constraint: the atmosphere changes quickly, and the most operationally relevant information is not always visible in point measurements or delayed satellite snapshots.
Reuniwatt addresses this gap with ground-based all-sky observation and data services designed for aviation use cases. The company combines wide-field sky imagery with automatic analysis to deliver actionable situational awareness that can be integrated into operational workflows, from airport weather monitoring to contrail observation and validation campaigns.
Contrail Observation To Support Avoidance
Contrail mitigation depends on understanding when and where contrails form, and on validating whether avoidance actions produce real atmospheric benefits. Persistent contrails occur only under specific high-altitude humidity and temperature conditions, which can be difficult to anticipate and verify consistently.
Reuniwatt's all-sky imagers support contrail observation as a continuous ground-based complement to modelling and satellite approaches. By capturing the sky dome over a defined area, these measurements can support monitoring programmes and provide evidence used in validation loops for contrail avoidance initiatives.
Reuniwatt’s all-sky imagers are being used in multiple research projects
which further study the development of condensation trails.
Airport Weather Monitoring For Air Traffic Management
At airports, cloud hazards, fog and fast-evolving convective situations can affect capacity and safety, particularly during the critical phases of approach and departure. Operators and remote tower concepts also increase the demand for persistent, high-availability observation at day and night.
Reuniwatt develops infrared all-sky imaging systems and software services that enable advanced cloud-cover analysis, including parameters used in operational reporting such as cloud fraction, cloud-base height indicators and METAR-oriented outputs. Continuous imagery can also support short-term anticipation of changes in the observed sky scene, aligned with operational decision timescales.
Reuniwatt’s all-sky imagers offer continuous hemispheric observations transformed into short-term cloud forecasts for smarter airport operations
Sky imagers and their corresponding features:
- Help air traffic controllers to identify critical weather phenomena at day and night time
- Improves the airport’s safety against potential weather hazards by observing the evolution of convective clouds
- Helps prepare for sudden changes in the weather and visibility
Sky InSight™ is an innovative and patented infrared sky imager developed by Reuniwatt for the continuous tracking of the cloud cover and its forecasting. The use of the infrared vision technology enables an excellent accuracy in cloud detection, while catching additional information on the cloud ceiling, 24/7. Sky InSight™ is to be coupled with Reuniwatt’s InstaCast™ software which enables advanced analysis of the images and forecasts of the cloud cover.
Sky InSight™ sky imagers provide crucial insights for air traffic activities on live and upcoming cloud cover (credits: Meteoswiss)