92nd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Tuesday, 24 January 2012: 11:30 AM
Scientific Viability of the USArray Transportable Array Network As a Real-Time Weather Monitoring Platform
Room 239 (New Orleans Convention Center )
Frank L. Vernon, Univ. of California, La Jolla, CA; and J. E. Tytell, B. Busby, J. Eakins, M. Hedlin, A. Muschinski, K. Walker, and B. Woodward
Manuscript (6.0 MB)

Earthscope's USArray Transportable Array (TA) network has proven to be highly successful at real-time monitoring of seismic events at 40 samples per second (sps). While the TA network was originally designed with seismic research interests in mind, since early 2010 the network has been retrofitted with atmospheric pressure and infrasound monitoring equipment. Most of the approximately 500 stations are now capable of recording atmospheric phenomena in real-time at 1 sps with VTI SCP1000 MEMS barometric pressure gauges. Meanwhile, over 100 of the stations also record at 40 sps with Setra 278 barometric gauges and NCPA infrasound sensors. The viability of the TA network to monitor weather with these instruments has been previously discussed, and the data presented in this paper will provide conclusive support for their observations. Analysis of gust front speeds and thunderstorm pressure couplets will help determine the severity of storm systems in real-time. Infrasound acoustic observations of thunder can potentially be used to filter noise from seismic data. Additionally, the 2011 tornado season provided a unique opportunity for real-time monitoring of tornadoes via combined seismic, surface pressure and infrasound observations. In total, the analysis of data presented in this paper will show that the USArray TA network is a powerful tool for real-time monitoring of weather phenomena.

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