In the past environmental modeling applications have relied on surface observations to provide meteorological inputs. With the advent of Doppler weather radar and sophisticated spatial interpolation techniques, improved high-resolution data can be provided to a new generation of distributed (grid-based) environmental models. The High-Resolution Weather Data System (HRWxDS) is a real-time, operational system that provides high-resolution, spatially distributed, digital data products that can be analyzed or incorporated into hydrological or other environmental models or graphical products that can be used for monitoring and analyzing meteorological conditions for a particular location or a region.
The HRWxDS provides an entire suite of high resolution, gridded meteorological data products. It capitalizes on the capabilities of Doppler radar technology to provide a more accurate estimate of the amount of rain and improved spatial distribution. In addition, it employs an advanced set of spatial interpolation algorithms specifically designed for meteorological variables to generate a complementary suite of high-resolution data products of other hydrometeorological variables from surface observations (e.g., air temperature, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, dew point, atmospheric pressure, solar radiation).
The HRWxDS has a decision support subsystem to display and analyze gridded meteorological data products. This system can be easily tailored to form an application-specific decision support system (e.g., hydroelectric power generation, reservoir management, irrigation scheduling, or emergency management).
The system uses generally available data meteorological data and is also designed to ingest local mesonet surface observations. The system can be run in-house in attended or unattended mode or the data products can be provided as a service via the Internet.
The system is a "real-time" system; however, it also has the capability to run in historical mode for post-analysis. The system can be customized to any geographic location with WSR-88D coverage. It also provides "end-user control knobs" to adjust algorithms used to generate the gridded products (e.g., radius of influence, a tropical rain event knob).
The HRWxDS has a robust Event Logging Facility (ELF) that records system configuration information, data retrieval status, statistics for input and output products, and processing information. The Log Viewer provides the capability to interrogate ELF records.
Presently, the system is running in production mode, operating as the front-end of a river management system over the Catawba River Basin (central North Carolina). It also has been used to perform hydrological studies and analyze heavy rain events