SkyTrac Systems of Kelowna, British Columbia, has won a contract from AirDat, a U.S. company, to provide Iridium ISAT-100 satellite system hardware as an upgrade to AirDat’s airborne meteorological data reporting system.

The ISAT-100 satcom unit will add services such as automatic flight following, two-way satellite voice communications and text messaging. The AirDat Tamdar (tropospheric airborne meteorological data reporting) system equips carrier aircraft with a multifunction atmospheric sensor that measures icing, turbulence, pressure, relative humidity and temperature and beams the data to meteorologists on the ground.

The data from the sensors is used to improve weather forecast accuracy and aviation safety. The SkyTrac hardware lets Tamdar aircraft use a single Iridium transceiver to transmit atmospheric data to the ground while providing the additional operational services.

SkyTrac, at Heli-Expo 2007 in Booth No. 317, is a Transport Canada-approved manufacturing facility providing systems and support to commercial aviation clients worldwide, including proprietary mapping software and worldwide remote access capabilities.

Iridium Satellite is a provider of global satellite voice and data services. Its constellation of 66 low earth orbiting (LEO) cross-linked satellites operates as a fully meshed network and is the earth’s largest commercial satellite constellation.