Tanzanian Data Rescue Project
Upper air wind records provide vital information for airport planning.
Status: Paused
"PIBAL" records
Upper air pilot balloons (PIBALs) record both wind speed and direction, important information for airports. IEDRO worked with the Tanzania Meteorological Administration to rescue historical upper air wind records in Tanzania, providing vital information for airport planning.
IEDRO volunteer Martin Munkhondya made an initial data rescue trip to Dar es Salaam and received three CDs from the Tanzania Meteorological Agency containing 1,878 PIBAL Observations from Bukoba from January 1965 through June 1970. IEDRO also received a CD from Tabora with PIBAL observations from 1972, ‘75, ‘77, ‘78, ‘79, ‘80, ‘82, ‘84 and ‘85 totaling 1,303 images.
Country involved
Tanzania
Contact on Site
Mr. F. Tilva – Tanzania Meteorological Administration (TMA)
Contacts in IEDRO
Dr. Rick Crouthamel and Martin Munkhondya
Funding Sources
NOAA - $32,600
Project Status
Completed 2010
Data Rescued
6,000 images
Why is this project specifically important?
Historic upper-air weather data is critical to improving the safety of all who travel to/from Tanzania. For example, in planning a new airport runway the data can help to determine from which direction the heaviest winds have historically come. Once the new runway is built with the correct orientation, takeoffs and landings will be much safer.
What are our plans for the future?
Tanzania has had trouble imaging their PIBAL charts since the data was written in pencil too faint for the camera to pick up. Advances in scanner technology offer some promise for on site imaging. Otherwise we might need to explore transporting the original PIBAL records for rescue using IEDRO’s more sensitive scanners.
Additionally, IEDRO would like to begin a surface Data Rescue and Digitization (DR&D) program if funding can be obtained.
