The Iowa Environmental
Mesonet

Daryl Herzmann1

Dr Ray Arritt1

Dr Dennis Todey2

1Iowa State University

2South Dakota State University

Outline:

Motivations for our Mesonet

IEM Component Networks

'Super-charging' Networks

Working with the NWS

411 on the KELO WeatherNet

IEM Applications

Conclusions/ No Questions

Motivations

The baseline NWS/FAA ASOS network is not spatially or temporally dense enough to resolve many mesoscale phenomena.

Building a new observational network is very expensive.

Building a mesonet of existing networks increases the value, use, and awareness of each member network.

The need for a mesonet

You are a forecaster at the Des Moines WFO. It is 9PM on 8 May 2003. It is dark, so spotters may not be able to help.

What surface observing resources are available to give you situational awareness?

The need for a mesonet

The baseline ASOS network provides you with hourly and some sub-hourly updates. The storm system is moving fast, so issuing timely warnings relies on timely current data.

The need for a mesonet

The Iowa Mesonet collaboration increases your resolution of the near storm environment.

Whoaaa! Dude, where is my RADAR?

What the Mesonet provided

Newton School

0.6 in / 15min

Various sensors

indicating non-severe

winds with these cells

Most importantly,

51 realtime sensors

recording rainfall just

for the DMX CWA.

IEM Component Networks

ASOS - Automated Surface
Observing System

Sites

15 +2 (CWI+FOD)

Location

Primary Airports

Purpose

Support aviation

AWOS – Automated Weather Observing System

Sites

35 +2 (CWI+FOD)

Location

Smaller Airports

Purpose

Support aviation

RWIS – Roadway Weather Information System

Sites

49 Online

Location

Along major roads near bridges

Purpose

Road maintenance support in winter

DCP – Data Collection Platforms

Sites

161

Location

Along rivers

Purpose

Monitor river stages

SchoolNet
(KCCI-TV & KELO-TV)

Sites in Iowa

55 (84 total)

Locations

Roofs of schools

Purpose

Support local science curriculum

NWS COOP – Cooperative Observing Program

Sites

145

Locations

Backyards, fields, about anywhere

Purpose

Climate and hydro monitoring

ISU Ag Climate Network

Sites

12

Location

Open areas near research farms

Purpose

Support Ag activities at the farms

SCAN – Soil Climate
Analysis Network

Sites in Iowa

2

Location

Fields

Purpose

Monitor soil conditions

Data Processed Daily

Website Access Stats

While website stats are nice, the IEM is

much more than just another

weather data website!

'Super-Charging' Networks

Value Added Processing

Too many folks just collect data from network X, use data in application Y

We make major efforts to help the various networks out.

Routing their own data back to them

Routing other data to them

Website application development

Archiving services (download, analysis)

QUALITY CONTROL!!!

Why work with the networks?

Network operators are typically lacking

IT support

An on-staff Meteorologist (a bad thing?)

QC expertise

We give the networks a reason to keep sending us their data.

IEM Tracker

9,000 trouble tickets have been generated since June 2002.

All data outages documented.

Very helpful for the SchoolNets

Need to make tickets more visible on the website.

IEM Data Partnerships

On-Air Image generated by KCCI-TV showing IaDOT owned Roadway Weather Sensor (RWIS) information.

Working with the NWS

Automated AWIPS Wind Alerts

Des Moines NWS Forecasters using an automated wind alert from the SchoolNet. (Craig Cogil & Gary Forester)

Current/Archived RADAR

5 minute composites since 4 Jun 2003

DMX displays current loop on their projection system during severe weather

Useful for building animations for presentations (hint-hint)

Will backfill archive as requests are made

Formatting Data for AWIPS

Generate LDAD csv files of RWIS data

Generate LDAD csv and SHEF encoded of School data

Wind alerts trigger AWIPS bell

All routed directly to LDAD via LDM

FSD currently gets LDADcsv, SHEF, and wind alerts of KELO SchoolNet

KELO WeatherNet 411

Network Metrics

35 sites

Each site reports: Air Temp, Humidity, Pressure, Instantaneous Winds, Rainfall (not heated), Solar Radiation

Two subnetworks

Older Texas Weather Instruments

Report every 6-10 seconds

Recent addition of Peet Brothers sites

Report every minute

Network Topology

Website Functionality

Current

Sortables

1 minute

data traces

Data

Download

Where's it

raining?

Current Sortables

Variable sorting

Dynamically updates

Add to 'My Favorites' for a custom listing of IEM sites

Dynamic spatial plots of any variable

Replicated On-Air display for any single site

Where's it raining?

'Live' WeatherNet 15 minute rainfall amounts with NEXRAD base reflect

Applications

Virga detection

QC sites

Flash Flood Guidance

Situational Awareness

1 Minute Data Traces

Dynamically generated with the latest obs or archived data

So much variability!

Hourly data

Temperature Dew Point Solar Radation

Minute Data

Temperature Dew Point Solar Radation

1 minute data!

Temperature Dew Point Solar Radation

IEM GIS Applications

3-4 June 2002 Flooding

CID Airport:

1.16 in

NEXRAD Est:

2 in

Downtown Cedar Rapids: < 9 in

NEX: 7+ in

DBQ: 5.96 in

NEX: 7+ in

IEM RadView

Effort to provide real-time RADAR data into GIS

First publicly accessible NEXRAD WMS

Mapserver HOWTO

OGC Web Services

Open GIS Consortium (OGC) develops standards for GIS systems to inter-operate

Web Map Service (WMS)

Web Feature Service (WFS)

Dynamically bring in Ortho Quads from the ISU GIS Lab

All generated with Open-Source software and Open GIS standards

Iowa RADAR comparison

Compare base reflectivity from the 8 RADARs we collect data from

More GISish App

Click interface

Distance calculation

KCCI reprojected

NWS Warnings + NEXRAD

Loop GIS layers to produce an interesting animation of warnings and NEXRAD product

Works nationwide!

IEM Freeze

Combine

RWIS pavement temperatures

IEM air temperatures

RADAR composite

A GIS interface for custom views

Feedback needed!

Fun with COOP data

Climatological Differences

Interactively query the NWS COOP climate database.

Example, compare daily temperature climatology versus what actually happened that year!

Daily Temperature Spreads

Accumulate all high / low temperatures for a day and produce a histogram

Dynamically generated on the website

Historical GDD data

Dynamically generate GDD, SDD from the COOP climate archive

Customized Period

Dynamically generated output plot.

GIS Ready dataset presented immediately below

Time for WEB demos?

I'm done, questions?

Daryl Herzmann

3010 Agronomy

515-294-5978

akrherz@iastate.edu

2003-10-08T11:19:31