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..."
MOD THEM DOWN (Score:3, Insightful)
Can we at least install on /. some neural-network scanners that would mod all such obsolete jokes down?
Availability (Score:3, Insightful)
Not long after this is implemented, I hope to see various news agencies provide not only forecasting based on information provided from the new equipment, but raw data (and maybe not-so-raw data...like images) as well.
This could be a great resource for researchers and the slashdot crowd alike.
p2p to distribute the data (Score:3, Insightful)
Hmmm, you know, p2p would be the perfect way to distribute said data among all the people who need access to it (if it was a screensaver and so popular and contained realtime feed...)
biological attack? (Score:2, Insightful)
What's the point if the system can't detect the biological/chemical element in question? Even if they knew where the element was released, and they could track the low-level winds, I doubt they could accurately predict how it would disperse. Even with more accurate & detailed data, the weather is a very chaotic and unpredictable system. But at least we'll be able to detect weather patterns missed by current technologies, so it's a good step forward.
array makeup question (Score:2, Insightful)
Would it be possible to have the individual nodes of the array be cell phone towers using the existing signals they are constantly transmitting for use in radar imaging. I understand the wavelength is different, but would cell phone length waves still interfere enough to return a proper reading?
just a thought of using a existing setup for data.
Re:It had to be said! (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, somebody should.