While it might be a name unfamiliar to many pilots, Baron Services is well known in meteorology circles. The company was originally formed out of a research project with NASA in the late 1980s that dealt with reporting of highly localized lightning data. Baron later expanded the display technology, incorporating radar data to create its first storm-tracking system. The storm tracker was unique in that it was the first to show storms at a localized level with estimated times of arrival for a given community. It was also the first tracking system to combine radar imagery with lightning data.
In the mid-1990s Baron expanded into the display and analysis of Nexrad radar data, the Internet display of weather information, and later into the development of an in-house line of radars called XDD (Xtreme Digital Definition) that are used today by a number of TV stations. More recently, the company received a government contract to upgrade 171 Nexrad sites operated by the National Weather Service, FAA and Department of Defense using so-called dual-polarization technology, intended to provide improvements in rainfall estimation and hail detection and more accurately portray rain showers and falling snow.
More In Avionics
