Articles | Volume 18, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4433-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-4433-2025
Research article
 | 
11 Sep 2025
Research article |  | 11 Sep 2025

Retrieving tropospheric refractivity structure using interferometry of aircraft radio transmissions

Ollie Lewis, Chris Brunt, Malcolm Kitchen, Neill E. Bowler, and Edmund K. Stone

Data sets

ADS-B Interferometry - (22/09/2023) Ollie Lewis and Chris Brunt https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12783749

Model code and software

Ray tracing and adjoint inversion code Ollie Lewis https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16996101

Interactive computing environment

ADS_B_refractivity Ollie Lewis https://github.com/olewis256/ADS_B_refractivity.git

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Short summary
Humidity observations are crucial for an accurate weather forecast. We propose a new way to measure humidity by measuring how radio signals from commercial aircraft are refracted by the atmosphere. Humidity affects the refractive index of air, allowing its presence to be detected. With thousands of flights in the airspace over the United Kingdom every day, there is the potential for a large increase in the number of humidity measurements for use in weather forecasting models.
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