Weather Radar Goes Miniature 167
quackking writes "As reported today in the Boston Globe, the NSF has committed at least $17M to build out a new network of miniature (at least in comparison with today's monsters) weather radars. This is to radar what Beowulf clusters are to the mainframe; the scientists at U Mass Amherst project that eventually a weather radar node will be deployable for under $20K! Now to figure out how to get real-time access to this mesh of sensors and create a really cool screensaver..."
Many benefits (Score:4, Informative)
First of all, the amount of energy you have to use to send a signal decreases with distance squared. So covering an area with with several small radar stations should keep the working signal in the relatively strong range with less power consumption.
Also, there will be a lot of overlap near the edges of the stations' zones, reducing anomolous readings through error checking. (This would have to be implemented. It wouldn't happen on its own.)
And it also opens the door for the possibility of trasmitting signals from one station to the next instead of always waiting for the ping to come back. That could allow for new methods and better results and more accuracy.
Re:Weather Sensor Array (Score:5, Informative)
Using Phased Array Radar? (Score:5, Informative)
Another benefit of phased radar array is that the scanning speed can be upgraded with better computer equipment with higher bandwidth and number crunching capabilities.
-Cyc
Re:Availability (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Weather Sensor Array (Score:3, Informative)
Oklahome Mesonet [ou.edu]
West Texas Mesonet [ttu.edu]
MesoWest [utah.edu]
Note: The Texas Mesonets are particularly interesting during landfall of tropical cyclones!
A little math (Score:3, Informative)
Now, the sensors you propose, at $200 each, could get you 85,000 sensors for $17M. That's one sensor per 892 sq mi -- a bit smaller than Ocean County, NJ.
Not quite "every couple of miles", but not too bad. Still, I'd have to think the radar might return more data points anyway, sweeping across the landscape as they do. Plus, it couldn't cost much to add a package of temp/humidity/wind/etc. to each radar, which, while not 85,000 locations, wouldn't be bad either. And I'd have to guess those radars can cover at least a New Jersey each.
Volunteers can provide High Density (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Many benefits (Score:1, Informative)
Signal from Radar to Pulse Volume Space is related to distance squared... then a fraction of the energy is returned by impedence discontinuities in the pulse volume... then distance back also follows the inverse square law... so it's FAR worse than stated... that's why lots more of these puppies will be good news.
OpenGIS (Score:2, Informative)
This data could then be incorporated into your own personal Web enabled apps utilizing an open source product like U of MN Mapserver [umn.edu]
Re:Be your own weatherman? (Score:2, Informative)
http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/SL.us008001/DF.of/D
Different products, different sites...all updated as soon as the data comes in from the radar site. Then you can use the Geo::Nexrad perl code from sourceforge to parse at least the radial products.
In a few months, NOAA will get further into testing of their new DVB satellite delivery and you'll be able to get all of the NOAA data & imagery with a small satellite dish and a DVB card compatible with Linux.
Re:Using Phased Array Radar? (Score:2, Informative)
Shamless plug for the 2004 FY proposal.. I wish them luck!