A number of real time products will be available on the ground during research flight. These include the GV track and instrument data for GoogleEarth; a browser version of the instrument data; and data visualization using Aeros.

Real-Time Flight Position in Google Earth

To use, open the file in Google Earth and check the desired checkbox. The GV tracking will be updated automatically once the flight takes off; if it does not, right click on the "GV" box in GE and choose "refresh" from the pull-down menu. Real time variables can be viewed by using the most common check boxes, or click on the "Real time data" hyperlink folder name itself to display the full list of variables available, then select one from the list. The overlay you choose will be added to your Temporary Places folder; at the end of your GoogleEarth session just empty the Temporary Places folder. Adjust transparency of the overlays as desired to view more than one trace at a time.

Real time NEXRAD data with selectable variables are available as a GE overlay. Click on individual NEXRAD sites to choose the data overlays you wish to see. Note that individual overlays are also added to your Temporary Places, so emty them after you are finished.

Browser Data Access

Selecting variables from the list will display them as a strip chart. The charts will not refresh automatically, so use your browser's "Refresh" function to update the plots. Access data here. The list of variables displayed using this method is dynamic and is automatically updated every flight, so you will be able to see all variables transmitted to the ground during the current flight.

Aeros Software

Use right mouse click in the Aeros window after connecting the RT-GROUND database to add new graphs, variables etc. Download Aeros Software here.  Aeros is the most flexible way of viewing the GV data in real time, it allows to zoom in, out, select time intervals to display; it will show data as time series, X-Y plots, 3D flight track and many other ways but is only available for Windows or Linux at this time. Aeros is built around mouse clicks: to start working with Aeros, right-click to add items, right-click on existing items to modify them, etc. We hope you will find Aeros intuitive and easy to use.

Real Time Digital Imagery

The GV is equipped with a forward looking digital camera. The imagery from this camera is used to reconstruct the conditions along the flight track, identify cloud entry times, cloud base altitude etc. The current forward looking camera image is available as an overlay in the Google Earth file.

You can also see the approximate location of the GV on FlightAware. Please realize that FlightAware does not use any data feeds from the GV and does not always provide an accurate real time position. Also, if the airplane is flying under Visual Flight Rules (VFR), the flight track will not be visible on FlightAware.

Data provided in real time should not be used in any publication as they are preliminary and will change after proper quality control. Even after formal data release these data should only be used with proper acknowledgment of the NSF and project researchers.