Imagine having a single Web portal where all public surface transportation weather observations are collected, quality checked and made available to the transportation/weather enterprise. Through several years of investing in system design, implementation and testing, the Clarus System is operating in an experimental mode and is being populated with Environmental Sensor Station (ESS) observations from State, municipal and Provincial transportation agencies from across North America.

Clarus, which means “Clear” in Latin, is the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) ESS data management system. The Clarus System uses state of the art algorithms to quality check atmospheric and pavement observations from both fixed and mobile platforms. Data contributors can receive information on the health of their ESS networks as well as the calibration of their sensors. Data users can receive a full suite of observations, quality checking flags and metadata information.

As part of the developmental process of the Clarus System, the USDOT began a multi-phased regional demonstration in 2007. The first phase included having teams of State and Provincial Departments of Transportation (DOT) provide concepts for new products and services which would use Clarus data to support and enhance DOT operations. The second phase involved recruiting public transportation agencies to join the Clarus community.

The third phase began during the summer of 2008. At that time, a request for proposal (RFP) was issued to the weather enterprise. Using ideas which originated within the first regional demonstration phase, five different scenarios were presented to foster new products, algorithms, decision support tools and innovations that use Clarus data and support transportation operations. This presentation will provide details about both the original regional demonstration scenarios as well as those innovations that are being implemented as a result of awards from the RFP.