AN OVERVIEW OF SURFACE TRANSPORTATION WEATHER RESEARCH CONDUCTED THROUGH THE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM FOR OPERATIONAL METEOROLOGY, EDUCATION AND TRAINING (COMET)
State departments of transportation (DOTs) operate over 1,300 fixed Environmental Sensor Stations (ESSs) that provide information to support surface transportation decisions. Fixed and mobile ESS observations include parameters such as road temperature, road surface conditions, driving visibility, and chemical concentrations that depress road freezing points. In addition, fixed ESS sites typically measure winds, temperature, pressure, precipitation amounts, and humidity, which can be valuable supplemental observations for weather forecasting. In 2001, the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) began a joint research effort to evaluate how ESS data can best be used for both road condition forecasting and broader weather forecasting. One of the goals of the project is to promote sharing and using ESS observations and advanced meteorological modeling techniques to improve road condition forecasting for road maintenance, operations, and travel decisions. Project goals also include enhancing the NWS forecasting capabilities by setting up and analyzing high-resolution mesoscale and regional scale simulations. In order to accomplish goals, the project has established cooperative working relations between state DOTs, the university community, and local NWS Weather Forecast Offices (WFOs). Working through the Outreach Program of the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training (COMET), a request for proposals was issued and five universities received FHWA funding for two-year projects to work on a variety of research subjects. This paper describes the five research projects and their results to date, one year into the two-year efforts. The five projects selected are located in Iowa, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, and Utah.
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Corporate Authors:
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Authors:
- Pisano, P
- Spangler, T
- Hardesty, D
- Publication Date: 2002-12
Language
- English
Media Info
- Features: Figures; References;
- Pagination: 4 p.
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Decision making; Highway maintenance; Highway operations; Planning; Research projects; Travel; Weather forecasting; Weather stations
- Identifier Terms: Coop Prog for Operational Meteorology, Education & Training
- Uncontrolled Terms: Environmental sensor stations; Road condition forecasting
- Geographic Terms: Iowa; Nevada; New York (State); Pennsylvania; Utah
- Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Research; Terminals and Facilities; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00978454
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS, USDOT
- Created Date: Sep 13 2004 12:00AM