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MesoWest- Monitoring Weather
Conditions around the West and the
Nation
http://www.met.utah.edu/mesowest
[email protected]
John Horel
NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction
Department of Meteorology
University of Utah
MesoWest
• Cooperative sharing of current
environmental information in the western
United States and Nation
• Distributing environmental information to
government agencies and the public for
protection of life and property
• Primary support for MesoWest provided by
the National Weather Service
2003 Fire Locations (Red); Weather stations (Grey)
Fire locations provided by Remote Sensing
Applications Center from MODIS imagery
MesoWest- Tuesday April 20 10 MDT
Montana Data Providers (350 Active Stations)
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APRS/Citizen Weather (HAM radio operators) (20)
Army Corps of Engineers (1)
Big Sky Ski Resort (1)
Bridger Bowl Ski Resort (1)
Bureau of Land Management & other land agencies (RAWS 97 + 1)
Bureau of Reclamation Great Plains Region (AGRIMET) + Boise
(26 + 1)
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (27)
Department of Transportation (48)
Glacier National Park (1)
Montana Counties Soil Climate Network (5)
National Resources Conservation Service SNOTEL (89)
National Weather Service/FAA (23)
Southern Agricultural Research Center(1)
What is Required of a Local Data
Provider?
• Provide permission to access, process, and
archive provisional data (data belongs to
original data provider)
• Make data available preferably through a single
collection point
• Allow redistribution and archival of weather
information to other agencies and the public
subject to usage restrictions
How Much Precipitation?
How Much Precipitation?
Summary
Summary
• If you have environmental data, and are willing to share it with other
agencies and the public, contact us ([email protected])
• We collaborate with National Weather Service Forecast Offices to
coordinate local data collection efforts
• MesoWest is a resource available to the public and government
agencies at no charge; restrictions apply for some commercial
applications
• Focus of MesoWest is to support efforts to protect life and property;
other groups provide long term data repositories of climate
information (NCDC, WRCC, Soil Conservation Service, Drought
Monitor program)
MesoWest- Monitoring Weather
Conditions around the West and
the Nation
http://www.met.utah.edu/mesowest
John Horel
NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional Prediction
Department of Meteorology
University of Utah
[email protected]
Overview
• NOAA Cooperative Institute for Regional
Prediction (CIRP)
• MesoWest
– Cooperative sharing of current environmental
information in the western United States and Nation
• ROMAN
– Distributing information to the fire weather community
with applications available for many other user groups
What is CIRP?
• CIRP: NOAA Cooperative Institute
for Regional Prediction at the
University of Utah
• Mission: Improve weather and
climate prediction in regions of
complex terrain, with an emphasis
on the West
• Current Support: NOAA/NWS,
NOAA/OGP, NSF, DOE, FHWA,
Utah Division of Air Quality, Utah
Department of Transportation
• Collaborators: More than 100
agencies, groups, and companies
in the western United States
CIRP Core Research and Development
Activities
• Enhancing understanding of weather
events in the West
• Facilitating access to environmental
observations (MesoWest/ROMAN)
• Improving methods to visualize and utilize
weather information (ADAS)
• Improving numerical weather prediction
models to increase accuracy of weather
forecasts (WRF)
2003 Fire Locations (Red); Weather stations (Grey)
Fire locations provided by Remote Sensing
Applications Center from MODIS imagery
MesoWest- Tuesday April 20 10 MDT
Monitoring
Current
Conditions
September 6
20GMT
A
D
A
S
ADASOne approach
to integrate
observations
Montana Data Providers (350 Active Stations)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
APRS/Citizen Weather (HAM radio operators) (20)
Army Corps of Engineers (1)
Big Sky Ski Resort (1)
Bridger Bowl Ski Resort (1)
Bureau of Land Management & other land agencies (RAWS 97 + 1)
Bureau of Reclamation Great Plains Region (AGRIMET) + Boise
(26 + 1)
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (27)
Department of Transportation (48)
Glacier National Park (1)
Montana Counties Soil Climate Network (5)
National Resources Conservation Service SNOTEL (89)
National Weather Service/FAA (23)
Southern Agricultural Research Center(1)
Mesowest- Collecting Data from Many
Networks
Participating
Network
Data
Network
Communications
Phone, Radio,
Meteor,
Satellite,
Internet
Preprocessing
ASCII,
CSV,
Binary,
METAR,
Shef
MesoWest
Database
Dissemination
mySQL
NWS,
Agencies,
Public
Soil Conservation Network Parameters
• Most variables already defined in MesoWest
database:
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Temperature, high/low temperature
Dew point temperature, relative humidity
Wind speed and direction, max speed (not wind run)
Pressure
Rain/rain rate
Solar radiation (not solar energy, UV)
Soil temperature and 1 level soil moisture (not 4
levels)
– No wind chill/heat index, THW, THSW index
What is Required of a Local Data
Provider?
• Provide permission to access, process, and
archive provisional data (data belongs to data
provider)
• Make data available preferably through a single
collection point
• Allow redistribution and archival of weather
information to other agencies and the public
subject to usage restrictions
Why Integrate Surface Observations in Real-Time?
• Weather nowcasts rely upon knowing current conditions
• Logistics of disseminating provisional, current weather
information is often easier than providing qualitycontrolled data later
• Weather prediction is becoming more dependent on
local data assimilation
• Researchers depend upon observations for improving
physical understanding of weather phenomena and to
validate operational and research models
• Today’s weather is tomorrow’s climate: monitoring
drought conditions requires collecting data today
Payback to Local Data Providers
• Improved nowcast and forecast guidance by NWS
• Local data resources are integrated with other nearby stations to
visualize weather conditions
• Quality control of data provides indication of possible sensor
problems based on other sensors in the area
• Monitoring of network outages aids troubleshooting communication
problems
• Availability of value-added products for use in operational decision
making
• Increased use and visibility of local observations by operational and
research communities and general public
• In the long term, may increase demand for more surface
observations
ROMAN
• Real-Time Observation Monitor and Analysis Network
• Provide real-time weather data around the nation to
meteorologists and land managers
• Display data in fast-loading formats tailored to the
wildland fire community and accessible to:
– Top-level managers using high speed networks
– Fire-behavior analysts and IMETs in the field over slow dialup connections
San Diego Tribune. 28 Oct. 2003
ROMAN Development
• Software developed at University of Utah to assist
Area Coordination Centers
entire fire weather communityGeographic
to obtain
access to
current surface weather information
• Support for development of ROMAN from BLM
and NWS
• Tools designed for fire weather applications can be
used for many other purposes
• Tested during 2002 and 2003 summer fire
seasons
• Operational for 2004 summer fire season
Current ROMAN Web Portal:
http://www.met.utah.edu/roman
ROMAN
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Structured by
– GACC Predictive Service Areas
– NWS CWA Forecast Zones
– NWS Fire Weather Zones
– Counties within States
Intuitive, easily navigable interface
– Clickable maps
– Station Weather
– Weather Summary
– Trend Monitor
– Weather Monitor
– 5 Day Temp/RH Summary
– Precip Summary/Monitor
– Weather Near Fires
– Search by zip code, geographic
location
Triangles: RAWS
Major data providers: NWS/FAA; SNOTEL; RAWS
What Has Been Happening Recently?
5-Day Max/Min Temperature, RH, Wind Speed
What Are the Current Conditions?
Weather Summary
How Much Precipitation?
How Much Precipitation?
Summary
Framework for Collaboration
• Considerable infrastructure in place to process,
archive, and display environmental information
• MesoWest team will work with any data provider
at no charge to collect, archive, and disseminate
basic weather parameters
• Modification to MesoWest database structure for
additional variables, monitoring of data quality,
and/or development of specialized software
requires financial commitment
Soil Conservation Network Parameters
• Most variables already defined in MesoWest
database:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Temperature, high/low temperature
Dew point temperature, relative humidity
Wind speed and direction, max speed (not wind run)
Pressure
Rain/rain rate
Solar radiation (not solar energy, UV)
Soil temperature and 1 level soil moisture (not 4
levels)
– No wind chill/heat index, THW, THSW index