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News & Media Longitude gets Garmin's new Doppler radar

Longitude gets Garmin's new Doppler radar

October 4, 2017 By Thomas A. Horne

Textron Aviation’s super-midsize Citation Longitude will be the launch customer for Garmin International’s new GWX 80 Doppler-based airborne weather radar. The GWX 80 will “…bring a virtually zero-effort weather radar to the cockpits of thousands of new and existing aircraft on the market today,” said Carl Wolf, Garmin vice president of aviation sales and marketing.

The GWX 80 merges automated 3-D volumetric scanning with advanced ground clutter suppression, Garmin said, and its antenna automatically tilts to create the most representative depiction of flight hazards near or along the aircraft’s flight path.

“The GWX 80 goes beyond hail and lightning prediction to also display severe cells that may contain wind shear or turbulence,” Wolf said.

'The GWX 80 provides real-time weather information to help pilots analyze convective weather threats, which aids in situational awareness and helps reduce aircraft operational costs,' Garmin said. Photo courtesy of Garmin.

Automatic tilt prevents pilots from over scanning or under scanning. A Garmin press statement said that pilots simply select a range and the GWX 80 collects multiple scans at various tilt angles to create a comprehensive, easier-to-interpret weather radar image. Maximum range is listed as 320 nautical miles.

Aural wind shear warnings are provided with the GWX 80, as is Garmin’s WATCH (Weather Attenuated Color Highlight) technology, which identifies areas of attenuated radar returns caused by high levels of precipitation.

Garmin expects technical standard order certification of the GWX 80 by the end of 2017.

Garmin GWX 80. Photo courtesy of Garmin.
Thomas A. Horne

Thomas A. Horne

AOPA Pilot Editor at Large
AOPA Pilot Editor at Large Tom Horne has worked at AOPA since the early 1980s. He began flying in 1975 and has an airline transport pilot and flight instructor certificates. He’s flown everything from ultralights to Gulfstreams and ferried numerous piston airplanes across the Atlantic.
Go to Thomas A. Horne's Profile
Topics: Avionics, Jet, National Business Aviation Association

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