Air turbulence is not only an aviation safety risk but a major resource drain as well: IBM Corp. estimates that airlines lose $100 million every year as a result of related maintenance costs and operational disruptions. The vendor set out to reduce the price tag this week by partnering with in-flight WiFi provider Gogo Inc. to create a service that can help pilots avoid bad weather more easily.

At the heart of the offering is patented algorithm known as the Turbulence Auto PIREP System (TAPS) that IBM gained as part of its acquisition of The Weather Company last year for $2 billion. The vendor plans to deploy the technology on the hardware that GoGo installs in passenger jets to provide wireless and streaming media services. The idea is to have the machine collect data from an aircraft’s sensors during flight, size up the weather conditions outside and then transmit its findings to ground control via the Internet specialist’s satellite network. From there, the information can be quickly disseminated to other planes, enabling pilots to steer clear of the turbulence in time. 

The approach is potentially much more efficient than verbally communicating weather data, which is what flight crews have been doing until now for lack of a better choice. IBM says that the automated nature of its technology will enable information to be transmitted much faster than before and thereby give pilots more time to maneuver around turbulence. Plus, the metrics can be quickly fed into flight management applications like The Weather Company’s Pilotbrief service to gain a better  understanding of the situation.

The icing on the cake is that Big Blue will also use the data collected by TAPS-equipped GoGo servers to improve its turbulence forecasts, which should lower the risk to airliners even further. A team of 40 aviation meteorologists from The Weather Company will alert the company’s clients whenever a particularly severe weather event is about to occur in the regions they serve.

The partnership with GoGo is part of a broader effort from IBM monetize the acquisition that saw the launch of another offering called Deep Lightning only a few days ago. The forecasting system crunches more than 100 terabytes weather every day to predict how temperature variations will affect businesses. Retailers, for instance, could harness the technology to fine-tune store inventory, while utility companies can use it to better prepare for water damage.

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