GPS tracking system on airplanes will help improve hurricane forecasting and weather models. The new technique, cwas developed at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

Old systems use GPS satellite signals and GPS ground receivers that are unable to get measurements over the ocean or receivers attached to satellites that are pricey to launch. The new GPS tracking system is able to obtain detailed information over the ocean, at different elevations, or in specific areas of interest.

This new system takes up about as much space as a refrigerator, but the team is working to reduce it to about the size of a shoebox so it can easily fit on commercial aircrafts and provide information from hundreds of flights daily.