A highly mobile system for near real time mesaurement, analysis, and prediction over mesoscale areas

A mobile system developed by the Army Research Laboratory is now being tested that can obtain "local" soundings by combining data from meteorological satellite and ground based remote sensors, and using that sounding as input to an on-board mesoscale model produce analyses and short term forecasts for a mesoscale area. The system also can ingest "external" surface and sounding data as well as gridded output from larger-scale models. The remote sensors include a wind profiling radar and a microwave radiometer, and the met satellite receiver obtains data from polar orbiting satellites. The refresh time for the local sounding can drop to as short as 4 or 5 minutes, while the model normally requires from about 10 to 30 minutes to produce an analysis and forecasts up to 3 hours. The model run time depends on the user defined horizontal resolution and total area (up to 500 by 500 km). While the model produces the best analyses and forecasts when it has local and external data (e.g., local and other soundings, and output from a large-scale prognostic model), it can produce useful output with only the local sounding as input. Conversely, the model generates useful output when only data from a large-scale model or other soundings are available. The entire system fits on a pick-up size truck with shelter plus a trailer. A generator towed by another vehicle provides power for remote locations. This paper presents the basic design of the current system, updates the measurement part of the system described in previous papers, and briefly describes certain aspects of the model and the system as a whole. Some potential future upgrades are presented. Initial test results suggest the capability of the system to produce output that has sufficient accuracy for a variety of applications. These applications include fire fighting, emergency response to, for example, hazardous releases, detection and prediction of hazardous weather at airfields, and transport and diffusion experiments.