Airservices Australia today launched a new portal that features camera views of weather conditions at locations around Australia.
The live portal, which can be found on the Airservices website, enables pilots to view actual weather conditions, and currently contains only six sites.
Airservices CEO Jason Harfield said Airservices will add more locations to the portal in the near future.
“With valuable assistance from the Bureau of Meteorology the new portal features cameras at Archerfield, Kilmore Gap, Kingscoat [sic], Launceston, Norfolk Island and Parafield," Harfield said, "and now we will work to implement cameras at other sites based on results of an online survey.”
Airservices has been working closely with the Bureau of Meteorology and airports to identify sites with existing power, communication infrastructure and camera equipment to provide the new service.
Airservices called for site suggestions in an on-line survey that attracted 540 responses over four weeks, nominating 230 different locations for the cameras.
According to Airservices, the weather camera network will be set-up in locations that will deliver the greatest safety benefit.
The weathercam network idea was adopted quickly by Airservices after aviation identify and entreprenuer Dick Smith donated $160,000 from the proceeds of selling his Citation jet to fund the project.
The Airservices weather camera portal can be accessed via the Airservices Australia website.