Mobile Meteorological Observation (M2O) Network

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Weather Service (NWS) is undertaking a major effort to enhance a National Mesonet infrastructure that extends beyond the reach of traditional surface observation of weather data. The National Mesonet will leverage non-federal networks and other sources of environmental data, including those collected by mobile platforms. Working toward that objective, Global Science & Technology, Inc, (GST) has partnered with NWS to build the nation's first mobile meteorological observation (M2O) network. This project entails the acquisition and delivery of mobile environmental data from commercial fleets to NOAA, as well as an evaluation of the data suitability when used in conjunction with traditional surface observations. As part of the project, GST will create standards for raw mobile observations as well as metadata to ensure that data are of high quality and meet the requirements of the meteorological community. The mobile observations will augment and supplement traditional surface observations, whereby decision makers will obtain a more complete picture of the actual environmental situation over a given geographic coverage. Spatial resolution will be denser—showing many more data points—and because the platforms are mobile, the data will be updated frequently. These mobile data will help describe the environmental conditions along and near critical surface infrastructure, as well as along the pathways of the fleet, which include valleys, mountains, and other topography. Government access to the mobile platform environmental data observation network will be provided through a data portal that supports NOAA's objective of monitoring and predicting meteorological and hydrological phenomena at a temporal resolution of less than 15 minutes and spatial resolution of less than five kilometers. Mobile observations offer extraordinary value to weather forecasts and prediction that will be better understood at the conclusion of this project.