A day after Air New Zealand announced there would be financial turbulence ahead, largely due to the coronavirus, some uplifting news from the airline has come today.
In what’s reportedly a world first, Air New Zealand’s joining NASA on a climate change project that will see the airline collecting environmental data on domestic flights.
One of Air New Zealand’s Q300 will be fitted with next-generation satellite receivers later this year. The receivers will act as a kind of "scientific black box" during flights, gathering data to better predict severe storms.
The data will feed into NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation System.
When used over land, the technology can also determine climate change indicators like soil moisture levels, drought and coastline erosion.
The University of Auckland will establish a Science Payload Operations Centre to receive and process the data that’s collected inflight at an altitude of around 16,000 feet.
New Zealand project leader and engineer, Professor Delwyn Moller, says the centre will manage what could ultimately be New Zealand’s largest source of environmental data.
The receivers are being developed by the University of Michigan for NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office.
Air New Zealand engineers will fit the first transmitters to one Q300 later this year. The project could be expanded to include more aircraft if the initial project goes well.
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