Extended Abstract (40K)8.3
Developing an Interactive Mesonet for PennDOT
Paul G. Knight, Penn State University, University Park, PA; and B. B. Ayers
Currently, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) maintains nearly 80 roadway weather information sensors (RWIS) across the Commonwealth with plans for additional sites. The RWIS' measure road temperature, surface conditions including chemical concentrations, driving visibility along with winds, temperature, dewpoint, and precipitation type. The utility of these hourly observations mainly depends on data quality (performance specifications) and site considerations.
Our project is to develop a quality control and validation technique for PennDOT's RWIS and to build an archive of these observations for easy retrieval by all interested parties. In addition, two of the partners, Penn State and the CTP office of the National Weather Service, will provide basic meteorological training for PennDOT to enhance their use of the data. NWS operational applications of the RWIS include using road sensor information to improve short-term forecasts and warnings, while Penn State research applications will focus on the new data set being used in operational mesoscale models.
Session 8, Further Advances in Transportation Weather
Tuesday, 15 January 2002, 2:00 PM-3:14 PM
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