Singapore Changi Airport Dropsonde for Weather

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156/2001156/2001

Extensive AWOS System: Singapore Changi Airport

2000 NWS Isaac Cline Meteorology Award: Dropsonde for Weather Reconnaissance

Short-Term Weather Predictions in Urban Zones: Urban Forecast Issues and Challenges

The 81st AMS Annual Meeting: Precipitation Extremes and Climate Variability 41621Y_Vaisala156 6.4.2001 10:05 Sivu 2

Contents

President’s Column 3 Vaisala’s high-quality customer Upper Air Obsevations support aims to offer complete solutions for customers’ AUTOSONDE Service and Maintenance measurement needs. Vaisala Contract for Germany 4 and DWD (the German Dropsonde for Weather Reconnaissance in the USA 6 Meteorological Institute) have signed an AUTOSONDE Service Ballistic Meteo System for the Dutch Army 10 and Maintenance Contract. The service benefits are short GPS Radiosonde Trial at Camborne, UK 12 turnaround times, high data Challenge of Space at CNES 14 availability and extensive service options. Surface Weather Observations World Natural Heritage Site in Japan 16 The First MAWS Shipped to France for CNES 18 Finland’s oldest and most Aviation Weather experienced helicopter operator Copterline Oy started scheduled The Extesive AWOS System to route traffic between Helsinki Singapore Changi Airport 18 and Tallinn in May 2000. Accurate weather data for safe The New Athens International Airport 23 journeys and landings is Fast Helicopter Transportation Linking Two Capitals 24 provided by a Vaisala Aviation Weather Reporter AW11 system, European Gliding Champs 26 serving at both ends of the route. Winter Maintenance on Roads Sound Basis for Road Condition Monitoring in Italy 28 Fog Monitoring Along the River Seine 30 The French Air and Space Academy has awarded its year Additional Features 2000 “Grand Prix” to the SAFIR system development teams of Urban Forecast Issues and Challenges 30 Vaisala and ONERA (the The 81st AMS Annual Meeting: French National Aerospace Precipitation Extremes and Climate Variability 38 Research Agency). This award acknowledges exceptional Eleven US Scientists Win the technological achievements 15th Professor Vaisala Award 39 benefiting the aviation and space community. For a The Frech Air and Space Academy decade, the SAFIR system has Awards the Grand Prix to the SAFIR System Team 40 served the French aerospace centers and numerous China Hosts 2000 WMO Meetings 42 international users in the Vaisala Supports Finnish Technical Unversities 44 aviation and meteorological fields. Total Network Solution Using GOES Direct Readout Ground Station in Vicksburg Missisippi 47

Vaisala in Brief

– We develop, manufacture – We focus on market seg- Editor-in-Chief: Editors: and market products and ments where we can be Marit Finne Bellcrest Language services for environmental world leaders, the pre- Publisher: Services Oy and industrial measure- ferred supplier. We pay Vaisala Oyj Printed in Finland by ments. high attention on customer P.O. Box 26 Sävypaino, Finland satisfaction. Our main FIN-00421 Helsinki – Purpose of those meas- value discipline is Product FINLAND urements is to provide Leadership. Competitive Phone (int.): basis for better quality of advantage is enhanced by +358 9 894 91 life, cost savings, protection economies of scale and of environment, improved scope. Telefax: safety and performance. +358 9 8949 2227 Internet: www.vaisala.com Design and Artwork: 2 156/2001 Non-Stop Studiot Oy ISSN 1238-2388 41621Y_Vaisala156 6.4.2001 10:05 Sivu 3

President’s Column

When Market Demand and Technological Push Coincide

e humans have an in- Changi Airport installation. time, but only for a very short built instinct to im- The highly-perceptive customer time span. This need has long W prove our living con- helped us to create new useful been latent. The next question ditions. It includes features for our product and real- is: how will this service be orga- understanding and exploiting ly forced us to develop our pro- nized? Will it be the responsibi- nature, adapting to extreme na- cedures for delivery projects. lity of society, or the private sec- tural phenomena and protecting We believe that our other cus- tor, or a combination of both? ourselves from natural disasters. tomers will also benefit from The major achievements of Significant progress occurs when this in the future. our sector have been considered market demand and technologi- Comparisons between differ- in granting the 15th Professor cal push coincide in a positive ent manufacturers’ observation Vilho Vaisala Award, which way. Sometimes the customer devices have been carried out went to eleven researchers this and his needs are the driving for a long time in meteorology. year. James L. Franklin was force for development, and We have eagerly participated in awarded the year 2000 NWS sometimes it is the technology them in order to learn. When Isaac Cline Meteorology Award developers themselves. the best specialists – users and for his hurricane study. Vaisala’s Meteorological researchers industry – together analyze the SAFIR team for thunderstorm and weather service profession- performance of observation de- forecasting won the “Grand als regularly meet each other in vices with objective methods, Prix” of the French Air and two major arenas: WMO’s then we not only know where Space Academy. TECO Conference and the things are going, but we also Meteorology is a great field. It AMS Annual Meeting. Both find new direction for future brings the scientific community, events provide an opportunity development. the users and industry together to share the latest achievements A recent challenge for re- in fruitful cooperation. We are of researchers, users and indus- searchers has been high preci- proud to be a part of it. try — as if in mutual stimulation. sion weather forecasting, which A very concrete way of cross- has produced concepts such as ing the borders is to participate nowcasting, mesoscale forecast- in demanding system applica- ing and urban zone forecasting. tions. As a good example, I It involves extremely high accu- Pekka Ketonen could mention Singapore’s racy with respect to place and President and CEO

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Jarmo Franssila, M.Sc. (Eng.) Product Manager (AUTOSONDE) Upper Air Division Vaisala Helsinki Finland

AUTOSONDE Service and Maintenance Contract for Germany

Comprehensive aftersales service has always been one of aisala’s high-quality the key aspects of Vaisala’s operations. Vaisala and DWD customer support is an essential part of (the German Meteorological Institute) have signed an V the service concept, AUTOSONDE Service and Maintenance Contract. The which aims to offer complete so- service benefits are short turnaround times, high data lutions for customers’ measure- availability and extensive service options. ment needs. Vaisala’s new service concept is exceptionally well suit- ed to remote-controlled AU- TOSONDE systems installed at distant sites and operating in harsh weather conditions.

Customer cooperation

The first AUTOSONDE delivered to Germany was purchased by DWD (Deutscher Wetterdienst), the German Meteorological Institute, in 1997. It was field tested in two locations, Quickborn and Lindenberg, before arriving at its final site in Essen. The customer set quite demands on the quality of the soundings before accepting the system for operational use. The RS80-30GA GPS radiosondes and 600-gram balloons with internal parachutes proved to be ideal for high altitude soundings combined with high data availability. Due to the good results achieved with the first unit, DWD decided to order two more units as part of their “MESSNETZ 2000” project. These additional AUTOSON- DEs were installed at Stuttgart in 1999 and in Halle in 2000.

The AUTOSONDE system in Halle, Germany.

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The DWD representatives visiting Expertise for Vaisala (from left): Mr. Gerhard maintenance service März, Mr. Gerhard Limberger, Mr. Klaus-Jürgen Schreiber and AUTOSONDE is a technically Dr. Eckhard Lanzinger. advanced automation system consisting of many different subsystems – a sounding system, pneumatic system, data transmission, gas system, etc. It is a complex task to thoroughly understand the functions of these subsystems and their in- Remote service the DWD access server, for tion. As routine soundings are teraction. available maintenance purposes. Using performed on a regular and Customers can have difficul- this remote access the Vaisala continuous basis, it is impor- ty keeping the technical know- A remote control station is a Technical Support Team has tant to get help immediately it ledge of their service personnel standard part of each AU- been able to track down prob- is needed in order to keep at a sufficiently high level, in TOSONDE system. The re- lems and assist the customer in downtime to a minimum. This order to solve problems that mote station provides remote solving them. help can be in the form of in- seldom occur. Instead, they can control and monitoring fea- structions on the phone, re- release their personnel for tures, and receives both data Extensive service levels mote diagnostics or a spare other productive tasks and rely and messages from the AU- parts service. on the assistance of Vaisala’s TOSONDE sounding sta- The maintenance contract be- Level 2 covers all the services technical support. We have the tions. DWD has located all of tween DWD and Vaisala start- of level 1, plus the additions expertise to control the whole its remote stations in Munich ed at the beginning of this year. mentioned above. chain from the first screw up to in order to centralize the con- The contract includes all three The purpose of level 3 is to the latest data level. trol of their AUTOSONDEs. levels of maintenance, tailored ensure reliable functioning and In practice this means that the to customer requirements. high data quality. The annual Automated upper air functions of all three AU- Level 1 includes software up- maintenance procedure per- observations TOSONDE stations can be grades and a remote diagnostics formed by Vaisala has been controlled by one person in service. Level 2 includes level 1 planned to take advantage of The AUTOSONDE provides one place. plus a 24-hour hot line and a earlier experience, feedback full automation of upper air ISDN routers have been spare parts stock at Vaisala, and information collected over observations from pre-launch used to provide a fast ISDN while level 3 includes the previ- several years. In addition to the radiosonde preparation and ra- connection between the sound- ous two levels plus annual content of the previously men- diosonde launching to data ac- ing station and the remote sta- maintenance. tioned levels, and as specified quisition, processing and mete- tion. These stations are an inte- If the customer selects level in the contract, Vaisala also orological message generation. gral part of the DWD Intranet. 1, he can take advantage of the guarantees specific response The Vaisala AUTOSONDE From the beginning, Vaisala latest modifications and im- times for sending spare parts or performs up to 24 radiosonde has had access to the AU- provements to the software. a service technician to the site observations without operator TOSONDE stations, through Sounding is a 24-hour opera- when needed. intervention.

The network configuration and remote diagnostics Jarmo Franssila, giving a training session to Eckhard Lanziger (left) of the DWD AUTOSONDE system. and Gerhard Limberger.

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Marit Finne 2000 NWS Isaac Cline Meteorology Award Editor-in-Chief Vaisala News Vaisala Helsinki Finland Dropsonde for Weather PHOTO COURTESYPHOTO OF NOAA, USA.

Vaisala’s RD93 GPS dropsonde is used in hurricane and weather research.

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r Reconnaissance

James L. Franklin, a hurricane specialist with the U.S. National Weather Service’s (NWS) National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida, has won the 2000 NWS Isaac Cline Meteorology Award for his study of the hurricane eyewall based on data obtained with the Vaisala GPS dropwindsonde.

he 2000 NWS Isaac debated National Hurricane Cline Meteorology Center’s (NHC) practices and Award is given an- the NHC received criticism T nually to individuals from some quarters for its use or teams that have made signi- of relatively high ratios. Mr. ficant contributions in support Franklin’s work should end the of U.S. National Weather debate. Service’s (NWS) strategic and Then a hurricane researcher operational plans, and recog- for NOAA’s Hurricane Re- nizes operational excellence search Division, Mr. Franklin within key facets of the core was part of the development NWS mission. Mr. Franklin’s team at the National Center for study was cited for resulting in Atmospheric Research (NCAR) “excellent improvements to the that first developed the RD93 accuracy of National Weather GPS dropwindsonde (Hock Service hurricane analyses, and Franklin, 1999). The drop- through innovative interpreta- sonde, now manufactured by tion and application of Global Vaisala under license from Positioning System (GPS) NCAR, is routinely deployed dropsonde data”. by reconnaissance aircraft in the hurricane eyewall, the most Meteorological debate intense and turbulent part of the hurricane circulation. The “Meteorologists have struggled dropsondes provide, for the for decades to accurately and first time, detailed, accurate objectively assess a hurricane’s profiles of the inner core of a maximum surface wind speeds, hurricane from flight level due to the lack of in-situ sur- down to the surface. face observations in the storm’s core. Even with aircraft recon- 500 dropsonde profiles naissance data, forecasters could in the eyewall only estimate the surface wind from observations typically ob- Mr. Franklin recently com- tained from a flight level of 700 pleted an analysis of more than Mb (10,000 ft),” Mr. Franklin 500 dropsonde profiles in the explains. eyewall and outer vortex re- In recent years forecasters gions obtained during the usually estimated the surface 1997–99 hurricane seasons, de- wind speed as 80–90 % of the termining the mean wind speed flight-level wind. Limited com- profile over the lowest 10,000 ft parisons of flight-level and in various portions of the hur- buoy data, however, suggested ricane circulation. His study a different range, 63–73 %. In (Franklin et al. 2000) produced view of the buoy studies, the the following results and opera- scientific community openly tional recommendations.

NOAA’s P-3 ‘Orion’ Hurricane Research Aircraft are among the most advanced airborne environmental research platforms for the study of severe storms and global climate change.

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• Operational Hurricane Analysis. The average reduction factor (R) between the surface and flight-level (700 Mb) wind in the hurricane eyewall is 0.89. This con- firms NHC’s operational practice of using higher factors than implied from buoy intercomparisons. Mr. Franklin also determined reduction factors for other typical flight levels. That is, for the 850 Mb level (com- monly flown in tropical James L. Franklin has won the 2000 NWS Isaac Cline Meteorology Award for his study storms), R = 0.80. For inves- of the hurricane eyewall based on data obtained with the Vaisala GPS dropwindsonde. tigative flights at 1,000 ft, R = 0.85. In the past, forecasters did not generally consid- er the altitude of the recon- Over 80 hurricane naissance aircraft in their es- eyewall penetrations timations. Mr. Franklin (43) relates: “I re- • Representativeness. Storm ceived my B.Sc. and M.Sc. de- to storm variability in the grees in Earth, Atmospheric, wind reduction factors was and Planetary Science from the documented, and a strong Massachusetts Institute of Tech- dependence upon the char- nology in Cambridge, Mas- acter of convective activity sachusetts. In 1982 I joined the and on cyclone strength was National Oceanic and found. A method was devel- Atmospheric Administration’s oped to evaluate eyewall (NOAA) Hurricane Research dropsonde profiles to ensure Division (HRD) as a research that the assigned wind meteorologist, where I studied speeds accurately represent- synoptic-scale influences on ed the 1-min sustained wind hurricane track. At HRD, I was standard. the principle investigator of an experiment designed to im- • Public Safety. The drop- prove hurricane forecasts by re- sonde data revealed that leasing Omega-based drop- winds at the top of a 30- windsondes in the hurricane story building average about environment, an experiment 20 kt (one Saffir-Simpson which led to NOAA’s purchase Hurricane Scale category) of a Gulfstream IV jet aircraft higher than at the surface. and the development of the Franklin’s average eyewall GPS dropwindsonde in the profile required reassessing mid-1990’s. “ the vulnerability of high-rise During his time at HRD, he This figure shows the mean eyewall profile buildings and elevated ter- made over 80 hurricane eyewall determined from the dropsonde data. rain. The study suggests penetrations in NOAA’s WP- people seeking shelter in 3D research aircraft, including high-rises should stay at the several into Hurricane Mitch, a lowest floors necessary to category five hurricane on the avoid the storm surge. Saffir-Simpson scale. He joined

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the National Hurricane Center as a hurricane specialist in 1999. In this position, he is one of a group of six NHC forecasters responsible for all tropical and subtropical cyclone advisories, forecasts, and warnings for the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and the eastern North Pacific Ocean.

National Hurricane COURTESYPHOTO OF NOAA, USA. Center

“The National Hurricane Center’s mission is to save lives and protect property by issuing watches, warnings, forecasts, and analyses of hazardous weather conditions in the trop- ics,” Mr. Franklin says. “To do this, NHC maintains a continuous watch on tropical cyclones over these waters annu- Hurricane Floyd on September 13, 1999. ally from 15 May through November 30. The Center pre- pares and distributes hurricane Towards improved hurricane forecasts watches and warnings for the Hurricanes are products of the tropical ocean and atmosphere. Powered general public, and also pre- by heat from the sea, they are steered by the easterly trade winds and pares and distributes marine the temperate westerlies, as well as by their own ferocious energy. Around and military advisories for their core, winds grow to a great velocity, generating violent seas. Moving other users.” ashore, they sweep the ocean inward while spawning tornadoes and During the ‘off-season’, fore- producing torrential rains and floods. casters provide training for Satellite images of hurricanes show a unique and characteristic cloud U.S. emergency managers and formation, one that signals an intense tropical weather system. The power- representatives from many ful storms spawned in these tightly coiled systems produce heavy rains other countries that are affect- and maximum sustained winds of 33 m/s (74 mph / 64 knots) or higher. ed by tropical cyclones. NHC Each year an average of ten tropical storms (of which six become hurri- also conducts applied research canes), develop over the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, or Gulf of to evaluate and improve hurri- Mexico. Every three years, about five hurricanes strike the United States cane forecasting techniques, coastline. Two of the five will be major hurricanes (category 3 or greater, and is involved in public aware- on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The scale from minimum to maxi- ness programs. mum is 1 to 5). Designed for weather reconnaissance, hurricane and weather research, the Airborne Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System (AVAPS) incorporates a Vaisala RD93 GPS dropsonde. This advanced research system was developed by the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in cooperation with the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NCAR has licensed the production of the new GPS dropsonde.

References

Franklin, J. L., M. L. Black and K. Valde, 2000: Eyewall wind profiles in hurricanes determined by GPS dropwindsondes. Preprints, 24th Conf. Hurr. Trop. Meteor., Ft. Lauderdale, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 446-447.

Hock, T. F., and J. L. Franklin, 1999: The NCAR GPS dropwindsonde. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 80, 407-420.

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Bart van de Kerk, M.Sc. Project Manager Siemens Nederland N.V. Den Haag The Netherlands

The radiotheodolite antenna tracks the radiosonde automatically throughout the sounding. An operator shelter on the vehicle is used for data processing and telecommunications equipment. Ballistic Meteo System for t

At the beginning of 2000 the Dutch Army placed an order with Siemens Special requirements Nederland to build seven new ballistic meteo shelters. The new systems The military application sets will replace the present ones and allow expansion of the amount of op- some special requirements for erational systems in use. This new order also gave the Army the possi- the meteo system. The most bility to equip their meteo systems with the latest technology. Vaisala important is gaining reliable has been responsible for designing a system that meets the Army’s re- upper-air data, up to an altitude of 20 km, for tactical de- quirements and Siemens Nederland has done the system integration in fense applications. The data order to get a fully operational Ballistic Meteo System. contains the parameters of the wind speed and direction as well as the pressure, temperature and humidity (PTU). From this data, meteo messages are made in real-time ac- Latest meteo data is vital cording to the STANAG format. The user transmits these According to the Dutch Army, messages with standard radio artillery operations carried out systems of the Dutch Army. in harsh weather conditions re- The whole meteo system, ex- quire the latest meteo data. cluding the radiosonde, must The purpose of the Ballistic be passive during operation so Meteo System is to provide ar- as to avoid detection. tillery units with the latest local meteo data. The data is used to Old and new technology calculate ballistic trajectories and correct them for the speci- The army’s present meteo sys- fic atmospheric circumstances. tems use radar technology to The Dutch Army has been in- track radiosondes. This makes volved in various UN missions them very complex systems in recent years. In these opera- whose reliability may be want- tions it is very important that ing. As the army would also the system is highly mobile and prefer to carry out maintenance can be used in extreme condi- on site, a less complex system is The launcher makes it easy to fill the balloon and launch the radiosonde. tions. required. The new systems are

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the necessary equipment, ex- Two vehicles are needed for cluding the antennas (GPS and field operation – one truck car- UHF) and the RT20, is installed rying an operator shelter with in a standard shelter of the the base station and radio equip- Dutch Army. In this shelter the ment, and another truck for signals from the antennas are transportation of the radio- processed by the DigiCORA III theodolite, the balloon launch- Data Processing System. er, gas cylinders and the per- A network, in this case an ARC- sonal gear of the soldiers. NET, maintains the communication between the DigiCORA III Training and the antennas. The DigiCORA III software converts Because the system contains to- meteo data into useful graphs tally new equipment and soft- and meteo messages in real- ware, the Dutch Army contract- time. The messages meet the ed Siemens Nederland to arrange STANAG requirements and are training. Markku Markkanen The sounding workstation and telecommunications equipment directly used for different mili- from Vaisala Helsinki gave ope- are operated inside the spacious EMI/EMC protected shelter. tary purposes. Siemens Neder- rational and maintenance train- land has equipped the shelters ing for the meteo system. with standard army radio sys- One of the systems has been tems to transmit the meteo mes- reserved for training purposes. sages to the fire control system. In addition, Siemens has fur- nished a classroom with four r the Dutch Army Extreme conditions workstations with DigiCORA III software for training and The shelter has enough room running sounding simulations. for up to three people to ope- This facility helps operators to rate the meteo workstation and become familiar with the soft- radios. It is also provided with ware. After a certain start-up equipped with two different accurate method and has the ad- an air-conditioning system for period, the army will take over methods of tracking radioson- vantage of not being dependent extreme weather conditions. the training function. Siemens des, both of which are less com- on the availability of the GPS The shelter and the outside Nederland is responsible for plicated than a radar system. satellite system. The disadvan- meteo equipment are made to operator and maintenance The easiest way is to use a ra- tage of the RT20 is the fact that, withstand temperatures from training for the operator shel- diosonde with a GPS receiver, during the sounding, the base –40 to +70 °C. Thus, the ter and the transportation shel- which measures the phase data station is not moveable. Ballistic Meteo System is us- ter of another vehicle. All the of the GPS signals. This data is Whereas the advantage of GPS able all over the world, an es- systems will delivered to the transmitted to the base station sounding is that the base station sential requirement in modern Dutch Army before summer using 403 MHz telemetry. The can move around in a limited defense strategies. 2001. location of the base station is area – which can be important determined by another GPS re- for camouflaging. As the system ceiver or by inputting manual- is equipped with both wind ly. Wind speed is calculated by finding functions, the user can using GPS data from the ra- always make his choice. diosonde and the ground sta- The receiving antennas, ei- tion location. ther GPS or RT20 can be posi- The other method imple- tioned up to 30 m from the mented in the meteo system is base station, which makes it the use of Vaisala’s RT20 possible to hide the base sta- Radiotheodolite. The RT20 uses tion and at the same time to a radiosignal (1680 MHz band) give the antennas a clear view from the radiosonde to deter- of the radiosonde. All the mine the position of the sonde. equipment is painted in colors As the antenna is kept pointing for optimal camouflage. at the radiosonde, the azimuth and elevation angles can be Software processing measured. Using the antenna’s angular pointing data and the The radiosonde battery lasts at radiosonde height information, least 2 hours, which is enough based on measured atmospheric for a sonde to reach a height of Training session in classroom – simulation software of DigiCORA pressure, temperature and hu- over 20 km. During flight the III enables training for normal and special weather situations. From midity, the software calculates PTU measurements are trans- left: Mr. te Kulve (Army), Mr. Logman (Siemens), Mr. Meijer the wind speed and direction. mitted in the UHF band to the (standing, Army) and Mr. Dierkx (Army). This appears to be a reliable and base station. On the ground all

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GPS Radiosonde Trial at Camborne

Ilkka Rekikoski, M.Sc. (Physics) The Met Office performed a GPS radiosonde Sensor Design Engineer trial at Camborne, UK, from the 4th to the 15th Veijo Antikainen, M.Sc. (Physics) of December 2000. The purpose of the trial was Product Manager to evaluate different manufacturers’ radiosonde GPS performance. The trial was also a prelimi- Markku Markkanen, B.Sc. (Eng.) Systems Engineer nary test of the arrangements for the WMO GPS test to be held in Brazil in May 2001. Upper Air Division Vaisala Helsinki Finland Professional test The Vaisala team involved in- From Vaisala both RS80-15G arrangements cluded Mr. Mike Brettle (Sales and RS90-AG were flown. Manager, Vaisala Newmarket), During the trial 19 flights The trial was organized by the Mr. Veijo Antikainen (Product were launched, 16 of them with Met Office, and headed by Mr. Manager), Mr. Markku Mark- a specially designed flight rig John Elms. Other members of kanen (Systems Engineer) and carrying three or four radioson- the Met Office involved were Mr. Ilkka Rekikoski (Sensor des. Four of the rig flights were Mr. Richard Smout, Mr. Design Engineer). made with RS90-AG and all Darren Lyth, Mr. Julian Buss A total of five types of GPS others with RS80-15G. and the operational staff from radiosondes from four compa- A 1200-g balloon provided Camborne radiosonde station. nies participated in the trial. lift to reach pressures up to 7 hPa. The launch schedule included three flights per day, at 11:15, 14:15 and 17:15 local time. The Camborne test facilities are well equipped and professional. The station is one of the Met Office’s operational sounding stations. It is located on a relatively open and treeless area. The wind during the trial was up to 23 m/s, so the conditions were challenging enough!

Vaisala performed well

Vaisala started the development of utilization GPS navigation for upper air wind finding in 1993. In September 1997 when the Omega navigation system was phased out, this unique Vaisala GPS solution re- placed the phased out Omega solution. Since the introduction of GPS wind finding, a continuous improvement and development effort has taken place. The most recent improvements were introduced in Vaisala News 155/2001. The results of these improvements can be

UK Meteorological Office’s operational sounding station at Camborne. 12 156/2001 41621Y_Vaisala156 6.4.2001 10:07 Sivu 13

The flight rig and balloon ready A total of five radiosondes participated in for launch at Camborne, UK. the comparison. The radiosondes are being prepared for a launch.

seen in this latest Camborne tive humidity in the vertical data. were usually similar in all the Vaisala’s GPS sondes gener- participating radiosondes, there ally performed very well using was poor agreement in the ab- this rig configuration. On 15 of solute values of relative humid- the 19 soundings more than 99 ity reported in medium level percent of raw wind levels were cloud. Further analyses of calculated and the average wind, height and (in particular) number of tracked satellites humidity will be obtained in was 7. Fifteen Vaisala ascents Brazil when dewpoint hygro- obtained winds immediately meter radiosondes will provide above the surface. Three an independent reference. soundings suffered from inter- A complete analysis of the ference from a nearby wind- trial results will be made by the finding radar operating at Met Office. Camborne which caused all RS80-15G winds to be missed for the remainder of these flights. During later flights the radar was not switched on until after launch. Mr. John Elms with the specially Weather conditions in designed flight rig carrying Camborne were demanding. radiosondes to be tested. The wind was often very strong and ground level humidity was often between 90 and 100 % RH. The conditions were also suitable for humidity sensor testing. Both RS80 and RS90 humidity sensor performance was good. In five flights where the RS80s went through low and medium level cloud the average RS80 raw humidity measurement was 105 %. In two flights where the RS90s went through cloud, the average raw humidity was 104 %. These measurements are consistent with RS80 humidities observed operationally in the UK Net- work during wet conditions. The authors from the left: Ilkka Rekikoski, Veijo Antikainen, Whilst the variations in rela- and Markku Markkanen.

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Today, operations at the Guyana Space Center are completely focused on the Ariane program.

The French Space Agency, the CNES The Challenge of Space

The French Space Agency, the CNES, was creat- Focus on the Ariane model MW15, equipped with ed in 1961 by the French government. Vaisala’s program the GPS wind finding system and using RS80-15GII radioson- PTU GPS sounding equipment is used at the The CNES has a technical es- des. The MW15 is connected to CNES in French Guyana to check meteorologi- tablishment, responsible for a computer which records both cal conditions before satellite rocket launches. the operational facilities for the raw and edited data. Ariane launches, at the Guyana Radiosounding launches are Space Center (CSG) in French made at an accelerating pace The CNES in a nutshell Guyana. The CSG became ope- starting 24 hours before the rational in 1968, and its first rocket launch, the last ra- The French Space Agency, the launch was the Véronique diosounding being made two CNES (Comission Nationale probe rocket. Today, the CSG hours prior to the crucial mo- d’Etudes Spatiales), was created is completely focused on the ment. in 1961 by the French govern- Ariane program, whose first When the sounding data ment. The mission of the launch took place in 1979. shows that the meteorological CNES is to make proposals to The CNES has been using conditions are acceptable for a the government concerning Vaisala’s radiosounding equip- space rocket launch, a green space policy in France. It then ment since 1993. The main pur- light is given. As the ra- carries out the chosen pro- pose of the radiosoundings, ope- diosonde rises into the atmos- grams in collaboration with rated by SDO/AM/LC/MTO phere, the radiosounding data partners in industry, research (Meteorological Service), is to becomes available in real time and defense. determine the force of upper air with a resolution of up to 5 sec- The CNES is located in four winds up to 30 km height and onds. main centers, each with its own higher. Pressure, temperature The location of the Guyana specific purpose and assign- and humidity data is also meas- Space Center near the equator ments: ured and used to forecast the (5 degrees North) is ideal for risk of thunderstorms or strong launching orbiting geo-station- • The Headquarters are in convection at short range, in ary satellites. Paris; conjunction with other meteor- • The Launch Division (DLA) ological information. in Evry (Paris suburbs) is re- As important as determining sponsible for all missions as- the absolute wind speed is the sociated with space trans- ability to detect possible hori- port; zontal windshear. This infor- • The Toulouse Space Center mation is vital in validating the (CST) is in charge of space- exact moment of launch of the craft activities and for run- very expensive space rockets ning operational systems; and their even more expensive • The Guyana Space Center load – which is usually satellites (CSG) at Kourou (French for different clients. Guyana) is the launch and The CNES currently uses two test base. DigiCORA II ground systems,

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Yakushima Island in Japan is a World Natural Heritage Site

Shigeki Shimizu, BBA Technical Consultant Vaisala Tokyo Japan

apan has several while the high altitude area in Compact MAWS World Natural Herit- the mountains is a subarctic automatic weather age sites approved zone. The high precipitation in station J by UNESCO. One these variable environments of them, Yakushima island (cir- has allowed a wide variety of The MAWS automatic weather cumference 132 km, area 503 plants and animals to grow. As station was selected because of km2) is located about 1000 km a result, some very valuable its ability to operate for a long southwest of Tokyo. It is the and globally unique ecosys- time without mains (AC) power fifth largest island in Japan. tems have evolved on the is- supply and its compact, light- Yakushima has mountains ris- land. weight size. It is easy to assem- ing to about 2000 m in the cen- ble in the field. The observa- ter and very variable weather Surveying the tion equipment must be carried because of the extreme varia- meteorological up to the installation site manu- tions of altitude and slope di- conditions ally along mountain paths for rection. over 3 hours. The island has many Dr. Takashi Eguchi, Professor of The weather parameters meas- Japanese cedars over 1000 years Geography at the Department of ured by MAWS are wind speed Dr. Takashi Eguchi, Professor of old. One of them, known as Humanities at Kochi University, and direction, temperature, hu- Geography at Kochi University, is “Jomon sugi”, is reputed to be has been studying the variable midity, solar radiation and at- conducting a survey of the variable 7200 years old. The area near weather of Yakushima to clarify mospheric pressure. The wind weather of Yakushima island. the coast is a subtropical zone, its three-dimensional, regional speed and direction are meas- characteristics by observing tem- ured to analyze the tempera- perature, humidity and precipita- ture, humidity and precipitation. tion in different slope direc- In order to gain the neces- tions. The solar radiation is sary meteorological data, measured to clarify the solar ra- Professor Eguchi installed diation environment and Vaisala’s MAWS automatic weather conditions at the top weather station on the top of of Yakushima, while the tem- Kuromidake, the highest point perature and humidity are ob- in Yakushima. Beginning in served to explain the tempera- September 2000, he started a ture and humidity environ- three-year survey to analyze the ments at the top. data processed by MAWS and the data collected from ten Expectations of the weather observation points set ecosystem survey up according to altitude and slope direction by Professor The survey of the weather envi- Eguchi and Japan’s Forestry ronment has been made to Agency. This study is expected clarify how the difference in to clarify the three-dimensional precipitation, due to altitude meteorological characteristics and slope direction, affects the of Yakushima, and their causes. weather conditions, by using

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There are suspicions that the forest has been damaged by air polluting peroxides. Mt. Shirane, Japan.

the wind data in relation to regional precipitation characteristics. The survey has also been carried out to explain how the temperature and humidity vary depending on the altitude and slope direction, by using the wind and solar radiation data. The survey is expected to clarify the overall weather environment of Yakushima and to enable the classification and modeling of geographical influences on the weather. In the past, the studies made of the weather of Yakushima have been mere case studies. Now, a The MAWS weather station, an total study is being made. acid rain and acid fog observation The results are expected to system and an ozone observation help in clarifying how variable system (within a white box housing ecosystems are formed and in outdoor meteorological instruments) preparing future guidelines for on Mt. Shirane. protecting the ecosystems in Yakushima.

The MAWS weather station was insalled on the on the top of Kuromidake, the highest point in Yakushima.

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Satu Torikka Voted the best airport First MAWS Technical Editor by various travel and and trade magazines for the last 13 years, Shipped to Marit Finne Changi Airport has Editor-in-Chief gained worldwide Vaisala News Vaisala Helsinki recognition for its effi- France for Finland ciency, excellent facilities and friendliness. Vaisala’s extensive CNES AWOS system installation was completed The first MAWS weather station in January 2001. shipped to France for CNES According to Timo (Comission Nationale d’Etudes Rytövuori, Project Spatiales), the French Space Agency, Manager, this was the has been used by the Stratospheric biggest airport delivery Balloons Launching Centre for a mis- ever carried out by sion at ESRANGE, Kiruna in Vaisala. Northern Sweden, since the autumn of 2000.

he MAWS station is working without any problems in temperatures of below –25 °C. It is measuring and logging data on tem- T perature, humidity, pressure, solar radiation, and wind speed and direction. The MAWS station is used to measure the severe environmental conditions of the preparation and fill- ingapore is a sophis- AWOS system for ing phases of pressurized ceiling balloons, aimed to ticated city state of weather monitoring measure the polar vortex at 20 km height, and which three million peo- fly for several months. S ple, a business, fi- A MIDAS IV Automated The portable version of the MAWS automatic nancial and tourist center in Weather Observing System weather station, equipped with a tripod, is ideal for the heart of the new Asia. The (AWOS) designed by Vaisala was applications in which easy, reliable and rapid deploy- city’s modern, comfortable fa- delivered to Singapore’s Changi ment is needed. cilities, coupled with its Asian Airport during 1999–2000. The heritage and culture, attract MIDAS IV system collects, thousands of visitors every processes, monitors, distributes year. They fly into Changi and archives meteorological data Airport which has grown and measured by a dedicated set of developed to become a leading meteorological sensors located airport of the region and a sym- along the runways. The observa- bol of Singapore’s dynamism tions performed by the system and success. provide Air Traffic Control and Voted the best airport by vari- other personnel with the meteor- ous travel and trade magazines ological data required in for the last 13 years, Changi Category II operations at the air- Airport has gained worldwide port. recognition for its efficiency, The project was carried out excellent facilities and friendli- in close cooperation with the ness. Civil Aviation Authority of

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Figure 1. Vaisala’s MILOS 500 weather station and wind sensors on the mast at Changi Airport. Vaisala supplies an extensive AWOS system to Singapore’s Changi Airport

Singapore (CAAS, the cus- wind speed and direction, pres- units (CDU) that perform met- point of failure that could tomer), Philips (the main con- sure, temperature and dew- eorological calculations for sen- cause critical degradation of tractor), and SingTel Aeradio point, meteorological visibility, sor values. The results are dis- performance. PL (SAPL, CAAS project con- runway visual range assess- played by MIDAS IV applica- sultant and maintenance agent ment, cloud height, precipita- tions on system workstations Easy usability for the MIDAS IV system). tion and sun duration. and displays. The sensors on the runway At Changi Airport, the dup- The MIDAS IV system design Sensing current weather gather weather data in real-time. lication of central data units facilitates easy operating, main- The wind sensors (Figure 1), (CDU) and communication tenance and management of The MIDAS IV system pro- barometers and rain gauges are lines guarantees weather data the system. The display units, vides continuous reporting of accompanied by Vaisala’s optical quality and system availability in workstations and printers com- runway visual range and pre- sensors: the CT25K Ceilometers all situations. Duplication gua- municate with central data vailing weather. It is designed and MITRAS Transmissometers rantees total immunity against units through a LAN, guaran- to meet the recommendations (Figure 2). Vaisala’s high-perfor- a system shutdown. When a teeing the system users conti- of ICAO and WMO interna- mance sensors guarantee the ac- switchover from one CDU to nuous access to system data. tional air traffic authorities. curacy and reliability of the met- another takes place for any rea- The authorities at various loca- The MIDAS IV emphasizes eorological observations. son, data processing can con- tions at Changi Airport are system performance and relia- tinue without interruption. connected to the system via bility thus maximizing the Redundant system Furthermore, duplication of workstations and displays, and safety of airport operations. architecture data lines from sensors increas- are provided access to system The MIDAS IV at Changi es safety in communications. functions. Windows NT pro- Airport performs the following The sensor data is transmitted Thus, the MIDAS IV system at vides a stable and easy-to-use meteorological observations: to the MIDAS IV central data Changi Airport has no single operating environment with

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standard menus and features. With MIDAS IV applications, the user can perform meteorological observation and forecasting tasks. The viewing of real-time weather data, the sending of meteorological reports (METAR /SPECI, SYNOP, TAF, SIGMET) and the archiving of weather data belong to the MIDAS IV’s basic functions. Several tools designed for that purpose facil- itate system performance monitoring. In exceptional situations, the user can also enter weather parameter values man- ually. The touch-screen displays serve locations where space is limited, e.g. the Air Traffic Control Tower. The system contains several backup and storage facilities. In addition, the UPS guarantees uninter- rupted data flow even in the case of power failure.

Generating METAR/SPECI reports

The METAR/SPECI application generates routine and special aviation weather reports automatically, yet allows the user to edit the report manual- Figure 2. Vaisala’ MITRAS Transmissometer at Changi Airport. ly. The system shows a METAR report template on the screen at specified intervals. A SPECI report template appears automatically to warn of rapid changes in the weather conditions. The system fills in the weather data for users, who can check and edit it whenever necessary. The report follows the format

VAISALA NEWS

Figure 3. The Air Traffic Control Tower is a landmark at Changi Airport. 4

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specified by the World The MIDAS IV system, intro- Meteorological Organization duced on 10 October 2000, has (WMO), and allows for the been reliable. He is also pleased entry of wind shear alerts and that the sensors are practically other warnings, and landing “maintenance-free”, with only type trend forecasts. The sys- minor cleaning tasks being tem validates the report and needed in addition to the an- notifies the user of problems. nual basic sensor check, which When the user has finished, he includes the moving parts. can send the report to the Hannu Katajamäki, Manager AFTN line with a click of a but- of Vaisala’s Aviation Weather ton. Automatic sending is also Business Unit, emphasizes that possible. the meteorological instrumentation at Changi Airport is Viewing weather data state-of-the-art technology. “During our extensive deli- Weather display shows real- very we had to find ever better time values for various weather solutions for the customer’s parameters in graphical and nu- needs. Since they required a merical formats. The values are very accurate system, it made constantly updated as the sys- us develop and test the tem gathers and processes new MIDAS IV system thoroughly. sensor data. As a result, we not only im- Figure 7. The weather displays are located at the ATC tower. The approach Figure 7 shows real-time proved our product but we are control is of the LCD touch screen type. weather parameters at runway also much better prepared to locations at Changi Airport. handle other cooperation with The screen is divided into three demanding deliveries”, says columns that represent runway Mr. Katajamäki. end and center locations. Each “Our work at Changi Airport column contains a wind rose will continue, because Vaisala with real-time and calculated will install a Low Level Wind wind data. Below the wind Shear system there this year.” roses, you can see various weather parameters including Thorough testing runway visual range, pressure and cloud height. At the bot- Tero Koivunen and Hannu tom, the screen shows the latest Heikkinen, both Software 4. Victor Lee, Project Manager from Philips, with the sent METAR report. Engineers, and Pirkko Väkimies, MIDAS IV server computer. Applications Engineer, are Fruitful cooperation members of Vaisala’s software 5. Wong Phaey Yuang, Technical Manager from SAPL. team. Before the delivery, the Mr. Lo Weng Kee from CAAS team tested the MIDAS IV soft- 6. From left: Koh Yee Rui (SAPL), Lo Weng Kee is happy with Vaisala’s weather ware system thoroughly. (CAAS) and Kway Song Moh (SAPL). instrumentation and MIDAS IV system at Changi Airport.

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Singapore AWOS in 1999 until he changed his job to product manager for wind sensors. According to Mr. Vuolahti, a good example of the testing work at the airport was the oc- casion when they repro- grammed the date and time of all devices in the system. He re- members: “We waited for the system date to run over a critical instant, like the change of the century. For a system with 22 computers and 11 network routers this became quite challenging. In fact, we tested ten different critical dates and performed the test with equipment on and off during the crossover.” After passing the job of project manager over to Timo Rytövuori at the beginning of 2000, he still handled some remaining parts of the commissioning and took care of a software upgrade during March 2000 to add audio alarms to the system. Says Mr. Rytövuori: “The Changi system is the biggest AWOS system Vaisala has ever delivered. But it was easy to co- operate with SAPL and the cus- Changi Airport has been voted the ‘best airport’ by travel and trade magazines for the last 13 years. tomer. Singaporeans are highly skilled at using state-of-the-art technology and have been mo- Pirkko Väkimies comments: tivated to learn every single de- 8. Hannu Katajamäki (left), Business Unit Manager, and Markus “Vaisala’s AWOS system is very tail of this system.” Vuolahti, Product Manager, from Vaisala. advanced, representing the lat- This year, Vaisala will supply est technology in computers Changi Airport with a Low 9. Vaisala’s software team members who visited Changi Airport and networking, with several Level Windshear Alert System during the MIDAS IV installation and site acceptance test, from left: kinds of measurements, dis- (LLWAS) which will further Tero Koivunen, Pirkko Väkimies and Hannu Heikkinen. plays and alerting messages. I contribute to safe flights. am very proud of this prod- Thomas Jungmann will be the 10. Project Managers Thomas Jungmann (left) and Timo Rytövuori. uct.” project manager. Markus Vuolahti was the 11. Satu Torikka, Vaisala’s Technical Editor, was responsible for first project manager for the technical documentation. Since Changi Airport is a leading world airport, technical documentation was a key issue in this delivery.

VAISALA NEWS

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MIDAS IV Automated Weather Observing System for

ince October 1, 2000, the New Athens International The New Airport (NAIA) has been undergoing an intensive 5- month trial period to ensure the optimum provision of air- S port services. All facilities and equipment are being tested Athens and the personnel are being trained. By March 2001, the airport will be ready in terms of technology, equipment and safety, as well as user- friendliness and quality of service. International The New Athens International Airport will • serve up to 16 million passengers per year in the first stage. Airport • have a parallel runway system allowing simultaneous take offs and landings. The New Athens International Airport is one of Vaisala has delivered the meteorological instrumentation for the airport. Vaisala’s integrated MIDAS IV Automatic Weather Observation the largest airport development projects in System (AWOS) was installed and commissioned in 2000. It provides Europe at the present time. It will be opened in meteorological data acquisition, validation, calculation, distribution March, 2001 in good time before the Athens and storage for air-traffic controllers and meteorological observers. Olympic Games in 2004. Vaisala’s MIDAS IV Based on object-oriented software architecture, the MIDAS IV applications range from individual airstrips to large international airports. Automatic Weather Observation System was de- The system is designed to utilize state-of-the-art sensors and comput- livered and installed at the airport last year. er technology, thus ensuring superior accuracy and performance.

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The Copterline helicopter service is far superior in speed to ferries on the Helsinki-Tallinn route. Located 80 km from Helsinki, the Estonian capital Tallinn attracts 6–7 million Finnish travelers a year.

Ritva Siikamäki, M.A. Copy/Marketing Specialist Upper Air Division Vaisala Helsinki Finland

opterline can boast that it offers the world’s quickest con- C nection between two capitals,” says Mr. Janne Rönnbäck, the manager of route traffic services at Copterline and a qualified helicopter pilot himself. By helicopter, the 80-kilome- ter trip from Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia takes only 18 minutes. This means that passengers save more than two hours each way compared with the standard airline service between the airports. Consequent- ly, the new helicopter service is highly appreciated by busy travelers who need to cross the Gulf of Finland frequently on business trips. According to Mr. Rönnbäck, some 1 million business trips are made annually between Helsinki and Tallinn, of which Copterline catered for around 30,000 in its first year of operating the route. The number of passengers is expected to rise to 60,000 next year. Although this is only a fraction of the total number of trips on this route, he stresses that Copterline has suc- ceeded very well in meeting the needs of their target group, business travelers. And they have also met their reliability targets.

Impressive track record

Backed by its 40 years of experience, Copterline is the only helicopter operator in Finland to be approved by the Finnish Civil Aviation Authority for Scheduled Route and IFR

PHOTO COURTESYPHOTO OF COPTERLINE. (Instrument Flight Rules) operations. In recognition of its outstanding record for aviation safety, the company was grant- ed the Helicopter Association International’s 1999 Operator Safety Award in August 2000. Fast helicopter transportation The Helsinki–Tallinn route operations have been organized and implemented in accor- dance with the new European JAR-OPS3 flight regulations, Linking Two Capitals including the JAR-OPS Sub-

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Copterline Oy, the oldest and most experienced helicopter operator in Finland, started scheduled route traffic between Helsinki and Tallinn in May 2000. Accurate weather data for safe journeys and landings is provided by a Vaisala Aviation Weather Reporter AW11 system, serving at both ends of the route.

part M maintenance require- High winds and storms do not Janne Rönnbäck manages the Copterline route traffic operations between ments. Mr. Rönnbäck notes stop helicopter traffic as easily Helsinki and Tallinn that have got off to a flying start (pictured at the that Copterline was the first he- as other means of transporta- Copterline hangar at Malmi airport, Finland). licopter company in the world tion. Helicopters can take off to meet these regulations in in- safely in conditions that leave ternational route operations boats, ferries and catamarans and that the maintenance re- stranded at their terminals. For sors with the data processing nearest airport. This would quirements are especially chal- instance, on a very stormy day and transmitting functions. It mean referring to the weather lenging. last May, when the ferry traffic measures all the weather para- data of Malmi or Helsinki- Operating a fleet of 14 heli- had to stop altogether, a record meters needed in aviation and Vantaa airport, located at quite copters, Copterline has be- number of passengers made reports the prevailing weather a distance from the heliport. If come well known in Finland their trip with Copterline. On conditions (sky condition, visi- this were the case, problems for its emergency medical mis- the same day, another record bility, QFE, QNH, wind speed might arise since both heliports sions. The Medi-Heli heli- was broken. Thanks to a tail and direction) to pilots by are located by the sea, where copters are “flying ambulances” wind, the trip from Tallinn to radio. “We must remember that weather conditions tend to dif- that carry medical equipment Helsinki took only 14 minutes! pilots are interested, above all, fer from the situation several and personnel onboard. More- “It may come as a surprise in the weather data rather than kilometers inland and can also over, Copterline operates mul- that a fairly strong wind is ideal the beauty of the system’s tech- change very quickly. tifunctional search and rescue for flying a helicopter,” says nical features. Ease of use and “If data on the actual weath- helicopters, staffed according Mr. Rönnbäck. In fact, he data availability are the most er at the heliport was not avail- to the requirements of specific points out that if the weather essential aspects of the system able in real time, our opera- emergencies. Copterline also turns really rough, he would for us,” notes Mr. Rönnbäck. tions might be restricted,” offers helicopter maintenance rather fly a helicopter than an If it were not for these sys- notes Mr. Rönnbäck. “But in services, and flies various spe- airplane, since helicopters are tems, the helicopter pilots this case, safety and reliability cial missions such as for aerial less sensitive to the vagaries of would have to rely on the are both enhanced by the accu- photography, transportation of the weather. Only extremely weather data supplied by the rate and reliable weather data.” construction materials, and foggy weather and freezing rain liming to fight acidification of will prevent them from flying. water bodies. “However, the But even though helicopters focus of operations is clearly on can be flown in practically all route traffic, which constitutes weather, he emphasizes that the bulk of the company’s weather cannot be ignored in turnover,” says Mr. Rönnbäck. helicopter operations. On the Investments of nearly FIM contrary, accurate and real-time 100 million were required to weather data is essential for heli- start the regular scheduled pas- copter pilots before each take- senger service. Copterline built off and landing. Mr. Rönnbäck terminals and heliports at the stresses that the Vaisala Aviation ports of Helsinki and Tallinn, Weather Reporter System brings recruited terminal staff and remarkable added value in strengthened its fleet with two terms of safety, since the pilots Sikorsky 76 C+ helicopters. now have accurate real-time Featuring twin turbine engines weather data at their disposal all and dual digital autopilot, the the time. “The AW11 System is Sikorsky 76 C+ helicopter seats a cost-effective, comprehensive 12 passengers. Its maximum and reliable solution, that serves speed is 287 kilometers per our pilots very well,” says Mr. hour and its range is up to 800 Rönnbäck. km. AW11 for weather Superior in speed measurement and reliability The data supplied by the AW11 Mr. Rönnbäck points out that systems is crucial to the traffic helicopters offer outstanding between Helsinki and Tallinn. maneuverability in confined The compact Aviation Weather areas and are superior not only Reporter System (AW11) inte- in speed but also in reliability. grates the meteorological sen-

The Vaisala Aviation Weather Reporter AW11 provides measurements of weather parameters for Copterline helicopter pilots at both the Helsinki and Tallinn heliports (pictured at Tallinn Heliport at Linnahall, Estonia). 156/2001 25 41621Y_Vaisala156 6.4.2001 10:09 Sivu 26

Marit Finne The 10th European Gliding Editor-in-Chief Championships were held in Vaisala News Vaisala Helsinki Lüsse, Germany, from July 29 to Finland August 13, 2000. Vaisala’s AW11 Aviation Reporter was installed at the Championships airfield. The AW11 measures all the standard aviation weather parameters: sky condition (cloud layer height and coverage), visibility, air pressure, temperature, dewpoint, wind speed and direction.

AW11 Aviation Reporter assists at the European Gliding Champs

The AW11 Aviation Reporter can be set up at an airfield with no more effort than it takes to install a meteorological sensor.

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Last summer Tero Koivunen participated in the 10th European Gliding Championships held in Lüsse, Germany.

ero Koivunen, a so far have been the award of on the prevailing weather con- to follow weather developments Software Engineer at “Finnish Master” in 1999 in the ditions at the airport. It inte- and inform their pilots about Vaisala, is an enthu- standard class, and 3rd place in grates all the sensors and fea- changes. “I think the partici- T siastic glider pilot. the Young Nordic Gliding tures of a complete Airport pants were satisfied with the He has also studied meteorol- Championships in 1993. Aviation Weather Observation weather reports generated by ogy. “Maybe my gliding hobby Mr. Koivunen participated in System in a single product. the AW11,” says Tero Koivunen. has affected my choice of ca- the 10th European Gliding Designed for small airfields, Sailplanes are able to glide by reer,” says Koivunen. “Since Championships held in Lüsse, the entire system can be set up utilizing ascending air currents my hobby is strongly weather- Germany, last summer, coming with no more effort than it or thermals. After a sailplane is related, it is certainly very com- in 21st out of 42 competitors. takes to install one meteorolog- towed to a starting height of 500 patible with the meteorological Says Mr. Koivunen: “Even though ical sensor. to 600 meters (1,700 to 2,000 profession!” I didn’t win, it was a valuable A speech synthesizer converts feet), it will continue flying by Knowledge of meteorology is experience to participate in a the weather information into gliding on the air currents and very important in gliding, espe- big gliding competition.” spoken messages, making the soaring upwards. Usually, both cially on long-distance flights. data accessible to pilots through these techniques are applied in- But to succeed in competitions, Real-time weather info the built-in VHF radio and tele- termittently during a flight. too, glider pilots have to choose phone network. Competition New technology and flying the right strategy, especially if With the help of the Vaisala organizers also arranged for the techniques have enabled the the weather changes during the Hamburg Office, the AW11 weather data to be displayed on most experienced glider pilots competition. Aviation Reporter was installed their web pages via PC, by mak- to fly distances of up to 1,000 at the Championships airfield. ing a small Perl script running km (600 miles) in favorable cir- European gliding The AW11 measures all the on Linux. cumstances. championships standard aviation weather parameters: sky condition (cloud Mastery of the weather Since he started gliding at the age layer height and coverage), visi- is the key to success of 15 in 1984, Tero Koivunen has bility, air pressure, temperature, flown between 50 and 100 hours dewpoint, wind speed and di- Weather information is a ‘secret’ every summer. Since 1987, he has rection. weapon for most gliding teams. also participated in gliding com- The AW11 generates accu- Sometimes competition teams petitions. His best achievements rate real-time weather reports have their own meteorologists

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Antony Giles, B.Sc. Product Manager Eurelettronica Icas Srl Rome, Italy

Accurate real-time weather monitoring is one of the most cost-effective ways to promote winter driving safety. Autostrade Centro Padane (ACP) has one of the best driving safety records in Italy, and Vaisala and its Italian agent, Eurelettronica, are proud to have contributed. Since 1994, ACP has been using Vaisala’s Ice products for winter road maintenance.

The ROSA weather station installed close to Brescia. Autostrada Centro Padane, Italy Sound Basis for Road Condition

utostrada Centro key factor in the decision to vation sites for visibility meas- Padane (ACP) opera- upgrade it to give more intense urement. In addition, the tes a 100 km stretch coverage, particularly for visi- newly released NowCast fore- A of motorway be- bility measurements, and to casting model was installed, to- tween Brescia and Piacenza in add-on some new and powerful gether with several IceViewer Italy. The motorway passes features. It was decided to in- software licenses to enable data through the Pianura Padana, a crease the number of road to be displayed and used at dif- vast plain extending across weather stations to six by ferent locations. northern Italy from Turin in adding two new complete The initial problem to re- the west to Venice in the east. ROSA road weather stations, solve was that of communica- Low overnight temperatures, and to add a further ten obser- tions: the existing system used high humidity and very fre- quent fog characterize winter conditions in this area and rep- WAN resent a serious challenge for Met Service PWD11 24 hour safety and winter maintenance. private fixed line Autostrada Centro Padane forecasts IceViewer for ROSA Windows (ACP) has been using Vaisala MILOS 200 technology since 1994 when PWD11 four MILOS 200 road weather

modem PWD11 stations were installed in Italy. NowCast PWD11 PWD11 present weather sen- dial-up connection sors for visibility measurement were added to the stations two PWD11 years later: in fact, ACP coope- IceCast rated with Vaisala in field test- UNIX Server ROSA MILOS 200 ing a prototype PWD11 prior PWD11 to commercial production. modem PWD11 IceViewer for Greater need for winter Windows MILOS 200 maintenance PWD11 PWD11 The high level of satisfaction IceViewer for PWD11 Windows with the IceCast system was a MILOS 200

28 156/2001 Figure 1. The system architecture. Vaisala’s IceCast server polls the outstations using ACP’s Wide Area Network. 41621Y_Vaisala156 6.4.2001 10:09 Sivu 29

one twisted pair of a private stations using ACP’s Wide fixed-line telephone system. Area Network. Wherever possi- This channel would become ble, the outstations are con- overloaded with all of the new nected to the WAN via an sites, and no other channel was RS232-TCP/IP converter. For available. sites which are distant from a Close collaboration between WAN access point, communi- Panu Partanen and the technical cations are routed through an staff of Vaisala’s Ice Group and originate modem to the private Centro Padane Engineering leased-line. staff, i.e. Massimo Balzarini and The NowCast PC automati- Marco Gruppi together with cally feeds forecasts to the Technical Director Roberto IceCast server using the Local Salvadore, led to the design of a Area Network (LAN). The hybrid system architecture. It Meteorological Service loads left the existing hardware virtu- 24-hour forecasts onto the serv- ally unchanged, and utilized er via a dial-up connection and The IceView screen showing visibility monitoring in various sites in Italy. ACP’s Wide Area Network standard modem each after- (WAN) for communications. noon. The observed data, 3- hour NowCasts and 24-hour matically generated forecasts of fic physical characteristics (loca- Hybrid system forecasts can all be displayed road surface temperature and tion, altitude, surface type, sky- architecture anywhere on the network using road surface state for specific view factor, etc.) to produce a the IceCast Viewer for Windows sites. The NowCast model uses site-specific surface temperature As can be seen from Figure 1, display software. real-time data to predict surface and surface state forecast for a the IceCast server polls the out- NowCasts are 3-hour auto- conditions. 24-hour period. The combined use of Fore- 24-hour forecasting Casts and NowCasts enables the efficient planning and exe- The Regional Meteorological cution of anti-icing activities Service of Emilia-Romagna in and provides early warning of Italy manages Vaisala’s IceBreak potential weather hazards. heat-balance model. Daily, Monitoring throughout the winter season, New surface sensor forecast meteorological parameters are fed into the model (air The new ROSA road weather temperature, humidity, wind stations are the first installa- speed, cloud cover, etc.) using tions of the latest DRS511 road the Service’s local area forecast sensors in Italy. This thermical- model. The ForeCaster software ly passive sensor measures road uses the meteorological para- surface temperature, state and meters together with site-speci- freezing point, and the incor- porated optical sensor directly measures water thickness in addition to being able to ‘see’ surface ice and snow.

Extensive fog monitoring

The concentration of PWD11 present weather sensors (a total of 16, with one every 5 km) enables the ACP operations center to accurately locate and monitor areas of fog. This information is used to provide warnings to users via variable message signs, and to authorize the opening of roadworks and the transit of exceptional loads. This project is a good example of how an IceCast system can be expanded to integrate new Vaisala Ice products. Its success was largely due to the close cooperation between Vai- sala and the customer throughout the project. The MILOS weather station on the foggy bank on the River Po.

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PWD11 Present Weather Sensors for Walter Dabberdt, Ph.D. Director of Strategic Research Vaisala Boulder Fog Monitoring Colorado, USA along the River Seine Urban Forecast

he Autonomous Port of the City of Rouen, locat- About one-half of the world’s population lives ed in the heart of Normandy, France, controls the in urban areas, and the percentage is increasing movements of all ships sailing up the River Seine T from the English Channel. The largest ships load at a rapid rate. Weather extremes in urban areas and unload seed, timber and other industrial products in the are responsible globally for tens of thousands of Port of Rouen. Before returning to the sea, the ships have to deaths annually, many of which could be avoid- turn around. The Seine is large enough for this, but only at ed by improved weather forecasts and nowcasts. Rouen! Although Rouen is 80 km from the coast as the crow flies, A team of experts was recently convened by the it is 120 km by the River Seine. The tide greatly affects the U.S. Weather Research Program to identify re- traffic of ships, reversing the flow of the Seine and generating search priorities, observational requirements a difference in the water level at Rouen of 4 m, but with a delay of 6 hours with respect to the coast. It also takes some and user needs for improved and specialized six hours for ships to reach Rouen, even with the reversed forecasts in urban zones. Here are their recom- flow caused by the tide. mendations. This peculiarity, combined with severe weather conditions such as thick fog and heavy rain, obliges the Port Authorities Preface to anticipate the movements of ships for several hours and several tens of kilometers ahead. This is an abridged version of Since the autumn of 2000, five PWD11 Present Weather the report of Prospectus Devel- Sensors have been installed at strategic points along the Seine opment Team 10 of the U.S. where fog occurs almost throughout the year. These sensors Weather Research Program. The are connected via a communication network to a host com- Team was charged to “identify puter at the Port of Rouen, where the data is presented nu- and delineate critical issues re- merically and graphically by software developed by the cus- lated to the short-term predic- tomer. The data shows the state of visibility and precipitation of weather in urban fore- tion, and estimates the intensity of the rain. cast zones.” In this context, “prediction” includes depiction and communication of present weather information and its extrapolation, in addition to numerical weather prediction on time scales up to 24 hours. Weather was taken to also include the urban boundary layer as it affects the transport and diffusion, but not the chemical evolution, of airborne pollu- tants.

The urban forecast problem

Weather has special and significant impacts on peoples living in large urban areas. Converse- ly, large urban areas can impact local weather and hydrologic processes in various ways. Urban users have different needs for weather information than Five PWD11 present weather sensors have been installed do their rural counterparts. at strategic points to monitor fog along the River Seine. Globally in 1990, about 45 per-

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Issues and Challenges1

cent of the world’s population Weather impacts urban areas 1. Accurate nowcasting (0–2 ment systems and model prod- lived in urban areas, up dra- and urban residents in many hours) for immediate re- ucts that have emerged during matically from 29 percent in ways. Heavy rains can cause se- sponse strategies against the past several years, from ac- 1950. Of the nearly 250 million vere flooding, snow and freez- threats of extreme pollution tivities such as the NWS mod- people living in the U.S. in ing rain can disrupt transporta- episodes, flooding, torna- ernization effort. This will in- 1990, about 64 percent lived in tion systems, and severe storms does,… volve substantial investment in urbanized areas occupying less and accompanying lightning 2. Accurate forecasting (3–24 local staff training, strategy de- than two percent of the U.S. and high winds can cause hours) of local extreme velopment, and information landmass. The current U.S. power failures. There is also weather events for use in facilities. Furthermore, urban forecast practice provides “uni- speculation by some (e.g. risk-based decision analyses leaders need to assess and re- formity of service,” which Bornstein and Lin, 1999) that regarding electric power dis- spond to unmet community equates to one forecast per geo- large urban areas can influence tribution, aviation hazards, needs pertaining to observa- graphic zone (usually a county) the genesis, intensity and impacts on surface trans- tional and modeling resources and a relatively uniform spatial movement of convective portation, flooding, public- that are available within the distribution of observing sys- storms and frontal boundaries. health alerts, … current state of the art. And sci- tems. Carbone (1999) suggests In the case of weather-related entists and community leaders an alternative approach “might fatalities, there are both direct 3. Accurate forecasting of together need to jointly estab- argue for a per capita level of and indirect effects attributable urban air quality, for use in lish key needs not met by exist- forecast service (100 times that to weather. Direct effects are flexible pollution-manage- ing technologies, and develop a experienced in rural zones) in those where weather has a di- ment. science-based strategy to bring urban areas… Perhaps a more rect causal impact on human 4. Rapid, reliable, and effective such technologies into practice. meaningful definition might mortality. The major direct im- information-dissemination take into account the level of pact results from heat waves, systems. These include sys- Phenomenological disruption to the functions of and urban areas are particular- tems for retrieving measure- issues society caused by weather in ly vulnerable because of their ment, nowcast and forecast urban and rural forecast zones high population densities and information by urban man- The several examples of urban and seek ‘uniformity’ based on because urban areas exacerbate agement and decision cen- weather phenomena discussed comparable minimization of conditions that lead to heat ters, as well as systems for here illustrate the importance disruptions as measured by loss stress. In contrast, indirect ef- disseminating information of weather and forecasting to of life and preventable eco- fects are those that result in to the public. urban planning and manage- nomic losses.” The recommen- death through an intermediate 5. Accurate climatological in- ment, indicate present capabili- dations of PDT-10 are consis- cause or process. Weather-re- formation, especially on ties, and identify imperatives tent with these arguments. lated traffic accidents are the flooding and runoff, for use for additional progress in resource of the single largest in- in designing flood and search as well as their timely direct impact on mortality. water-treatment facilities, implementation. Examples of urban Using data from the U.S. and associated operational weather users Department of Transportation strategies. Winter storms (USDOT, 1998) it is estimated • Water supply and that there are on average 6000 Effective and practical urban The impact on urban areas of sewage facilities weather-related traffic fatalities decision strategies must consid- winter storms ranges from mere • Fuel suppliers per year. er all salient elements of risk, inconvenience to the disas- and consequently they must be trous; see Figure 1. Heavy snow • Transportation sectors Needs of urban users based on realistic, quantitative and/or ice accumulation can • Emergency response measures of forecast and now- completely disrupt an urban re- agencies The forecast needs of urban cast uncertainty. The needs of gion for days (Kocin and • Public safety agencies users relate strongly to issues urban users expressed in items Uccellini, 1990). Prediction of of urban management: 1) 1 through 4 involve measure- wintertime weather involves • Insurance industry public works and utilities; 2) ment, computational and mod- meteorological phenomena • Health care providers public health and welfare; and eling systems. It is clear that that occur over a wide variety • Recreation facilities 3) public safety. Several gener- public decision centers and of spatial and temporal scales. • General public al user needs become readily their industrial counterparts Extratropical cyclones, com- apparent when viewed in this need to take full advantage of mon in winter, occur on the context: the meteorological measure- synoptic-scale (horizontal scale

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of 2000+ km and time scales of and kinds of winter precipita- 12 to 72 hours). Within these tion. Along the eastern U.S. cyclones, smaller scale (or seaboard, the presence of a meso- mesoscale: 2–200 km; 0–12 scale coastal front (see Bosart, hours) atmospheric features de- 1981) not only influences the termine the location, timing, rapid intensification of cy- and intensity of snow and ice, clones, but determines the loca- extreme temperatures and wind tion, timing and type of preci- chill. pitation that affects many large Synoptic-scale forecasts of urban centers along the East winter weather have generally Coast. Other geographic factors improved over the last 10 to 15 also modulate the pattern, in- years, with the most impressive tensity and type of wintertime factor being the lead time that precipitation. Proximity to a has increased from about 6.2 large body of water can make hours in the winter 1984/85 to the difference between liquid 10.6 hours for the 1998/99 win- and frozen precipitation. And ter season2. However, forecasts urban areas located close to of critically important mesoscale high relief terrain (e.g., Denver, details (mainly banded precipita- CO situated in the lee of the tion structures) are still inade- Rocky Mountains), can experi- quate. Urban areas located close ence enhanced snowfall effects. to large water bodies are suscep- Banded structures are a com- tible to the vagaries associated mon feature of many winter- with lake-effect snowbands time precipitation events. Figure (Niziol et. al. 1995). These bands 2 shows a National Weather can be quite narrow (< 10 km) Service (NWS) Weather Surveil- but long in horizontal extent (50 lance Radar (WSR) 88D reflec- to 200 km), and can produce tivity image of a snow event im- prodigious snowfall amounts pacting two major urban areas over both short (hours) and long (Washington, DC and Baltimore,

PHOTO COURTESY OFPHOTO JAMES L. WIESMUELLER. (days) time scales. While fore- MD). Evident is the placement casters provide excellent notice and orientation of several Figure 1. Snowbound vehicles on a four-lane major arterial near Denver, of most significant lake-effect roughly east-west (E-W) precipi- Colorado, after the 1982 Christmas Eve snowstorm. snow events affecting urban re- tation bands. Wiesmuller and gions, forecasters still cannot Zubrick (1998) discuss how provide precise forecasts of loca- local forecasters anticipated the tion and timing of individual possibility of heavy snowbands snowbands. on 26 February 1993 due to Other wintertime atmospheric conditional symmetric instabili- regimes modulate the amounts ty (CSI) and frontogenesis, and

Condition + Annual average * Maximum events Date (D) Tornadoes 82-100 739 March 1925 322 April 1974 (D) Heavy rains 100-160 2200 May 1899 and floods 732 March 1913 (D) Hurricanes 38-63 6000 September 1900 1836 September 1928 (D) Hail 1 22 May 1981 (D) Wind storms 60-115 105 December 1972 (D) Lightning 100-156 Unknown – (D) Winter storms 130-200 500 December 1983 and cold 270 March 1992 (D) Heat waves 1000 >10,000 1980 >9,500 1901 (I) Weather-related ~6000 Unknown – traffic accidents

* ranges reflect data from various sources + (D) = direct effect on mortality; (I) = indirect effect.

Table 1. Deaths attributed to weather in the United States (sources: Changnon, Kunkel and Reinke, 1996; and USDOT, 1998)

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As a consequence, typical “definitive” forecast lead-times are quite short and depend on the specific phenomena of interest together with good observational data. Strong tornadoes are usually predictable with lead times of about 30 minutes or less. Severe non- tornadic convective wind events (usually occurring on scales of 50–500 km2) are typically predictable with lead times of 15–30 minutes, but less than 5 min for microburst events. And most severe hail events on scales of 10–100 km2 are predictable with 10–30 minute lead times, while es- sentially no advance prediction is currently possible for lightning. In addition to these observational and conventional modeling techniques, rule-based “expert” forecast systems are becoming increasingly preva- lent. Such nowcasting systems integrate current observations from a variety of sensors to map details of the location and characteristics of thunder- Figure 2. Composite reflectivity image from the Sterling, Virginia, NWS storms, clouds, winds and ther- WSR-88D radar (KLWX), valid 1406 UTC, February 26, 1993. modynamic fields, which then are combined into a conceptu- al model-based forecast. One had included this thinking in Convective storms for rapid-response remedial ac- expert system, the NCAR local forecast products. How- tion, given accurate forecast Thunderstorm Nowcast System ever, it was impractical to accu- Severe convective storms can knowledge. Such floods typi- (Smith et al., 1998) uses data rately predict the exact timing produce tornadoes, strong winds, cally are associated with local- from WSR-88D radar, satellite, and location of each snowband. hail, flooding, and lightning, ized convective-storm events, mesonet and soundings. The Such precise forecasts are not all of which have profound ef- which occur on scales of less system is composed of several currently possible as they ex- fects on the urban environ- than 10 km and 1 hr. A prime feature-detection algorithms in- ceed the credible use of obser- ment. The urban zone is espe- example is the June 27, 1995, cluding: Thunderstorm Iden- vational data and models whose cially susceptible to landfalling storm in the Rapidan Basin at tification Tracking, Analysis physics and coarse grid resolu- hurricanes because of the large Ruckersville, Virginia. The and Nowcasting (TITAN), Surface tion are incapable of delineat- numbers of people at risk, the Rapidan River rose 19 ft in one Convergence Line Detection and ing such fine-scale bands. For high density of manmade hour, corresponding to an 86 % Extrapolation (COLIDE), Track- this event, one band formed structures, and the increased runoff ratio (Smith et al. 1996). ing clear-air Radar Echoes by well to the north of the DC risk of flooding and contami- Definitive forecasts of con- Correlation (TREC), and an ob- urban region and another nation of potable water sup- vection are limited to short jective analysis scheme. The formed to the south. While plies. As seen in Figure 3, tor- lead times, while more extend- system also uses an adjoint meso- snowfall totals in the Washington nadoes can cause significant ed 12–24-hour forecasts re- scale model to assimilate dis- DC urban region were relative- harm and destruction in urban main more probabilistic. For parate wind data to produce ly light (less than 8 cm), areas. On April 16, 1998, a tor- the shorter lead times, it is be- boundary-layer wind and diver- amounts in the central band nado ravaged Nashville, TN, coming possible to explicitly gence fields. Additional re- over central Maryland were resulting in one death and in- predict initiation, propaga- search directed toward im- much greater (20–30 cm). juring as many as 150 people in tion, and decay phases of in- proved nowcasting methods In view of the above consi- the city alone. Insured property dividual convective storms both for winter storms and derations, there is a strong need damage in Nashville proper using remote sensing (espe- convective storms can provide for application of high-resolu- was estimated at $145 million3. cially Doppler radar) data in significant benefits, particularly tion mesoscale numerical weath- Improved forecasting is an im- conjunction with dynamical when focused on the urban er prediction models (resolu- portant element in reducing modeling (Crook and Sun, zone. Nowcasting research and tion of 1–5 km). An important the destructive impacts of these 1999). Although case studies its implementation should be element of this activity must be phenomena. Flash floods are of have shown promising results, afforded a high-priority objec- to characterize limits to the particular interest in this con- routine numerical forecasts of tive of the U.S. Weather Re- predictability of wintertime text, owing to their damage po- thunderstorms cannot be ex- search Program. precipitation structures. tential and the real possibility pected for a number of years.

156/2001 33 41621Y_Vaisala156 6.4.2001 10:10 Sivu 34 PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER BY PHOTO TOOMEY/WEATHERWISE MAGAZINE CONTEST PHOTO Figure 3. A tornado moved through downtown Miami, Florida, on the afternoon of May 12, 1997. The F1 tornado touched ground for 15 minutes, causing damages of about one-half million dollars along a narrow 13-km long path.

Air quality and toxic releases Emergency-response teams • Improved forecasting for Hydrometeorology must quickly predict the trajec- air-quality users The close relationship between tories of the toxic plume. The Meteorological information is meteorological conditions and first priority is to obtain accu- In the past, some efforts of particular value from the air quality has long been recog- rate wind-field, mixed-layer have been made to forecast standpoint of predicting urban nized. Now, with the advent of and stability characterizations, extreme pollution episodes in runoff. Local storm climatol- improved forecasting tools and and to apply these for plume urban and regional areas so ogy can be applied to high ad- continued advances in compu- rise and pollution-transport es- that preventive measures (e.g., vantage for design of urban tational resources, opportuni- timates. These actions are most traffic or industrial restric- storm-sewers and other runoff ties exist to address two impor- useful when they can be imple- tions) could be taken to mini- control facilities. Short-term tant air pollution forecasting mented and updated quickly, mize potentially hazardous storm forecasts provide opera- needs in urban areas: with response times of 15 min- conditions. As better forecast- tors of such facilities needed utes or less. It is now possible ing tools become available lead times to adjust runoff-con- to make substantial improve- and as the ability to model trol systems to minimize po- • Mesoscale forecasting/ ments in this critical area both atmospheric chemistry tential adverse impacts. And nowcasting for emergency- through the use of real-time and dynamics improves, fast-response and spatially-re- response applications monitoring and reporting sys- episodic forecasting will be- solved observational data (e.g., tems that are coupled with come more practical and de- weather radar, reporting rain- The juxtaposition of indus- nested, high-resolution meteor- sirable for both economic and gauge networks), combined trial, manufacturing, and trans- ological and chemical-trans- health reasons. A likely atten- with storm- and hydrology- portation facilities in areas of port models. Such models, dant benefit of developing model systems, can provide an high population density can with resolutions of one kilome- better forecasting tools for air important “nowcasting” capa- create a situation with poten- ter or less, are now capable of quality predictions is the im- bility. With such fast-response tially severe consequences in continuous operation for proved ability to carry out and spatially resolved informa- the event of a major toxic spill urban areas and efforts are re- longer term planning for air- tion, public works operators or other release to the atmos- quired to implement them ope- quality management and con- can minimize problems by phere of hazardous materials. rationally. trol. controlling system flow struc-

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tures such as gates, pumps, and intakes. Moreover, urban plan- ners can use predictions from such systems, in addition to climatological information, in designing runoff-control systems.

Forecast uncertainty

Incorporating predictive uncertainty into response strategies is also an important feature of modern urban response planning. City managers and emergency-response operators often make decisions under conditions of substantial uncertainty in their efforts to maximize public safety. Attempts to quantify uncertainties associat-

ed with meteorology, hydromet- CHET BY SUTHERLAND,PHOTO COURTESY OF “TORNADO PROJECT ON LINE” eorology and runoff forecasting have improved decision-mak- Figure 4. A category F5 tornado devastated the northwest section of Wichita Falls, Texas and a nearby air base on ing in this area. Additional re- April 3, 1964. The storm killed seven people, injured 36, and destroyed or damaged 500 homes, causing an estimated search is needed to develop $15 million in damages — about $85 million in today’s dollars. and validate error estimation and propagation. Ensemble forecasting is a promising technique for quan- Figure 5. Vaisala’s road weather station installed in Utah, USA. tifying forecast uncertainty. A number of operational centers are already producing ensemble forecasts on the global scale. Techniques to produce short- range ensemble forecasts are also under development (see Brooks et al. 1995). Ensemble forecasting could be particularly beneficial for the urban area since many of the atmospheric phenomena that directly affect these areas are highly nonlinear.

Recommendations

The members of PDT-10 support the position that human life and well-being in urban areas could be protected and enjoyed to a significantly greater degree if there were: (1) improved access to real-time weather information; (2) improved tailoring of weather data to the specific needs of individual user groups; and (3) more user-specific forecasts of weather and air quality. The following recommendations fa- cilitate realization of these ob- jectives.

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User-oriented recommendations

(1) Provide end users with a dynamic users’ weather database that (3) Forecast uncertainty quantification. Pursue additional research contains current and forecast weather and air quality informa- into methods to quantify the uncertainty in forecasts of tion that is comprehensive, accurate, timely, and highly re- weather that impacts urban zones, and convey information solved in space and time. The data products should be synthe- about forecast uncertainty to urban managers and decision- sized to meet users’ specific needs. makers for the most effective utilization. Ensemble forecasts may be particularly useful in the urban area. Methods also (2) Detection, prediction, and warning of low-visibility and icing need to be developed to effectively convey probabilistic and conditions are critical to the aviation and surface transportation uncertainty information to the urban end-user. communities, yet research results have not been widely implemented into operational practice. An extensive measurement User- and science-based recommendations program coupled with model simulations is needed to aid further research in tropospheric icing. (1) Mesoscale forecasting for emergency-response applications. Develop (3) Develop robust lightning forecast methods. Users of lightning a focused program to provide operational meso-b and -g scale forecasts include both large “distributed” users (e.g. electric forecasts of transport and nd mixing for emergency-response utilities) and individuals. The needs of each group are differ- operations in urban areas. The program should include ent but equally important. Users need forecasts on the 0- to 2- demonstration projects for selected cities, with careful evalua- hour timescale in urban areas of thunderstorms that have a tion of the performance of the model, particularly under con- high probability of “intense” electrical activity. ditions of light synoptic forcing, stable stratification, and in areas affected by complex terrain. Science-based recommendations (2) Forecasting improvements for air quality users. Begin broadly- based discussions and interactions with individuals and groups (1) Wintertime phenomena affecting urban nowcasting. There is a pressing responsible for air quality management in urban areas in order need to characterize predictability issues related to forecasting to describe air quality forecasting products required in the mesoscale banded precipitation structures on a 1–6 hour time coming years. scale and 5–150 km space scale using operational high-resolution mesoscale models (resolution ~1–2 km). Such models need to as- (3) Weather and urban hydrology. Develop improved rainfall obser- similate state-of-the-art data from disparate observing systems vation and estimation systems to satisfy urban hydrology (such as radar, mesonets, aircraft, lightning, GPS). Additional needs for highly accurate data with both high temporal and basic research is required to better understand fundamental at- spatial resolution; and Develop uncertainty quantification mospheric physical processes and cloud microphysics, and to ad- models and methods for rainfall and urban runoff and flow, equately characterize banded precipitation structures. especially in the coupled hydrometeorological framework.

(2) Thunderstorm forecast systems. Additional emphasis is required In summary, the overarching recommendation of the members of for support of research, development and operational imple- Prospectus Development Team 10 is to make forecasting the urban as- mentation of highly-resolved (0–2 hour and 1–2km) thunder- pects of weather, hydrology and air quality a high-priority research storm-specific forecast systems. Specific areas of research in- theme of the United States Weather Research Program. clude: high-resolution depiction and forecast of boundary- layer winds, stability, and lines of convergence; integration of data sets, algorithms, and numerical model output into forecast systems that forecast thunderstorm evolution; and explicit use of cloud-resolving models.

Member Affiliation Walter F. Dabberdt, Co-Chair National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, Colorado* Jeremy Hales, Co-Chair ENVAIR, Pasco, Washington Steven Zubrick National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Sterling, Virginia Witold Krajewski Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa J. Christopher Doran Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington Andrew Crook NCAR, Boulder, Colorado Cynthia Mueller NCAR, Boulder, Colorado Clark King Environmental Techniques Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado Ronald N. Keener Duke Energy, Charlotte, North Carolina Robert Bornstein San Jose State University, San Jose, California David Rodenhuis National Severe Weather Center, NOAA, Kansas City, Missouri Paul Kocin The Weather Channel, Atlanta, Georgia Michael A. Rossetti U.S. Department of Transportation, Volpe Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts Fred Sharrocks Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington, DC Ellis M. Stanley, Sr. City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California * current affiliation: Vaisala Inc., Boulder, Colorado

Table 2. Members of the Tenth Prospectus Development Team of the U.S. Weather Research Program.

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Acknowledgments References

The members of PDT-10 acknow- Bornstein, R., and Q. L. Lin, 1999: Urban heat islands and summertime ledge and thank the following indi- convective thunderstorms in Atlanta. Atmos. Environ., 34, 507-516. viduals and institutions for their contributions: Roger Wakimoto, Bosart, L. F., 1981: The President’s Day snowstorm of 18-19 February Chair, and the entire Atmospheric 1979: A subsynoptic-scale event. Mon. Wea. Rev., 109, 1542-1566. Sciences Department at the University of California – Los Brooks, H.E., M.S. Tracton, D.J. Stensrud, G. DiMego, and Z. Toth, Angeles for hosting the meeting of 1995: Short-range ensemble forecasting: Report for a workshop, 25-27 PDT-10; Carrie Bousquet, NCAR, July 1994, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 76, 1617-1624. for administrative support; and to the six official observers (and con- Carbone, R. E. , 1999: Atmospheric Observation in Weather Prediction. tributors), Walter Bach, Army Storms, Vol. 1, R.A. Pielke, Jr. and R.A. Pielke, Sr., Eds., Routledge Press, Research Office; Richard Carbone, 109-125. NCAR and past USWRP Lead Scientist; Ray Hosker, NOAA Air Changnon, S.A., K.E. Kunkel and B.C. Reinke, 1996: Impacts and re- Resources Laboratory; Stephan sponses to the 1995 heat wave: a call to action, Bulletin of the American Nelson, National Science Meteorological Society, 77(7), 1497-1506. Foundation; Stephen Smith, NOAA National Weather Service; and Dale Crook, N. A., and J. Sun, 1998: Forecasting storm growth and decay Quattrochi, NASA Marshall Space using low-level radar data and the adjoint method. 16th Conference on Flight Center. Weather Analysis and Forecasting, Phoenix, Arizona, Amer. Meteor. Soc. pp190-192.

Footnotes Dabberdt, W.F. and J. Hales and Coauthors, 2000: Forecast issues in the Urban Zone: Report of the 10th Prospectus Development Team of the 1 Prospectus Development Teams (PDTs) U.S. Weather Research program, Bulletin of the American Meteorological are small groups of experts who are con- Society, 81(9), 2047-2064. vened by the U.S. Weather Research Program (USWRP) on a one-time basis Kocin, P. J., and L. W. Uccellini, 1990: Snowstorms along the Northeastern to discuss critical issues and research op- Coast of the United States: 1955-1985. Meteor. Monogr., No. 44, Amer. portunities, and to provide advice related Meteor. Soc., 280 pp. to future directions, resource commit- ments, and research priorities of the Niziol, T. A., W. R. Snyder, and J. S. Waldstreicher, 1995: Winter weath- Program. PDT-10 met August 24-26, er forecasting throughout the eastern United States. Part IV: Lake effect 1998, on the campus of the University of snow. Wea. Forecasting, 10, 61-77. California at Los Angeles. Table 2 lists the members of PDT-10; their full report Smith S., and M. Charma, 1996: An overview of the AWIPS thunder- was recently published in the Bulletin of storm product. Preprints, 15th Conference on Weather Analysis and the American Meteorological Society Forecasting, American Meteorological Society, 297-300. (Dabberdt and Hales, 2000). Smith S., J. Johnson, J., R. Roberts, and S. M. Zubrick, 1998: The sys- 2 Data in 1984/85 winter are for U.S. tem for convection analysis and nowcasting (SCAN) 1997-1998 field for a nationwide subset of small areas test. Preprints 19th Conference on Severe Local Storms, American (zones); whereas data for 1998/99 win- Meteorological Society, 790-793. ter season include the entire CONUS area and Alaska. Probability of detec- U.S Department of Transportation (USDOT), 1998. Bureau of tion for both 1984/85 and 1998/99 Transportation Statistics (BTS). Transportation Statistics Annual Report winter storms remained about the same 1998. Washington, DC. pp. 95-98. at 0.85 (source P. Polger, NWS, Silver Spring, MD) Wiesmuller, J. L., and S. M. Zubrick, 1998: Evaluation and application of conditional symmetric instability, equivalent potential vorticity, and 3 Property Claim Services, Insurance frontogenetic forcing in an operational forecast environment. Wea. Services Office, 7 World Trade Center, Forecasting, 13, 84-101. New York, NY 10048-1199.

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Marit Finne Editor-in-Chief Vaisala News Vaisala Helsinki Finland

The AMS 81st Annual Meeting took place at the Albuquerque Convention Center in January 2001. Vaisala’s exhibition stand showcased a number of product innovations in Albuquerque.

The 81st AMS Annual Meeting Precipitation Extremes and Climate Variability

The 81st AMS Annual uilt around two inter- Meeting was held disciplinary sym- 14–19 January 2001 in B posia, “Precipitation Extremes: Prediction, Albuquerque, New Impacts and Responses” and Mexico (USA) where “Climate Variability, the Oceans more than 2,800 of and Societal Impacts”, the meeting also featured the first AMS the world’s leading at- Presidential Policy Forum on mospheric scientists “Opportunities for 21st Century gathered to discuss a Meteorology: New Markets for Weather and Climate Informa- broad range of weath- tion”. er-related topics. Built The first symposium focused around two main in- on all aspects of quantitative terdisciplinary sym- precipitation forecasting. The second examined the ocean’s posia, several smaller role in past, current and future symposia and a large climate variability on a season- exhibition, the meet- al and centennial basis. The ses- ing was a great success sions included presentations geared to researchers actively in- according to AMS volved in these fields or to oth- Executive Director ers interested in learning about Ron McPherson. the latest findings. Attendees at the meeting represented a broad cross-section of scientists, engineers and academicians who work in the fields of meteorology, oceanog- raphy and the related hydrolog- ical sciences.

Vaisala was one of more than 130 companies A record number of taking part in the AMS exhibition. exhibitors

The AMS 81st Annual Meeting hosted a large array of exhibitors

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Eleven US Scientists Win the 15th Professor Vilho Vaisala Award in the atmospheric and related sciences, with more than 130 The winners of the 15th Professor Vilho Vaisala Award are companies showcasing products and services in 290 booths. eleven American Scientists for their paper entitled Vaisala’s exhibition stand “Ground-Based Remote Sensor Observations during showcased a number of product PROBE in the Tropical Western Pacific”. innovations. The upper-air equipment on display included the DigiCORA III ground equipment, the Tethersonde Meteorological Tower (TMT) with RS90 and RS80 radiosondes. The TMT provides pressure, temperature, humidity and wind measurements at multiple levels of up to three kilometers altitude for boundary layer research. Also on display was a DR93 dropsonde for accurate aircraft-deployed soundings, using the AVAPS (Airborne Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System) receiving and processing system. Vaisala offers a wide variety of advanced general surface Dr Ed Westwater receiving the Professor Vilho Vaisala Award. From the left: weather systems and instru- Professor G.O.P. Obasi (WMO), Mr Pekka Ketonen (Vaisala), Dr Ed ments, including a full line of Westwater (NDAA/ETL), and Dr John J. Kelly (NWS). products for civilian and military applications. Vaisala exhi- bited the Tac Met commercial The Professor Vilho Vaisala Award is given by WMO annually to encourage automated weather observation and stimulate interest in important research programs in the field of meteorol- system for tactical military needs, ogical instruments and methods, including observations supportive of WMO’s DRSG2000 GOES receiver programs. demulator, UBS 2000 base station software and WAS425 Ultra- Theoretical and experimental research sonic Wind Sensor. Vaisala is the global leader for The Award-giving ceremony was held in January 2001 in Albuquerque, New Aviation Weather Systems with Mexico. It was hosted by the US National Weather Service in conjunction with more than 2000 airports world- the Annual Conference of the American Meteorological Society and with the wide equipped with Vaisala sys- participation of General John J. Kelly, Assistant Administrator for Weather tems and sensors. Using the lat- Services of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration est sensor technology and state- (NOAA), Mr. Pekka Ketonen, President and CEO of Vaisala and a large num- of-the-art system integration, ber of scientists. Vaisala puts airport reporting The Award winners, Dr Edgeworth Westwater, Dr Yong Han, Mr. Jack Sinder, well and truly in the 21st centu- Dr James Churnside, Dr Joseph Shaw, Mr. Michael Falls, Dr Charles Long, Dr ry. The MIDAS IV Automatic Thomas Ackerman, Dr Kenneth Gage, Mr. Warner Acklund and Dr Anthony Weather Observation System, Riddle, have conducted a large amount of theoretical and experimental research SAFIR 3000 sensor and SAFIR in various geophysical sciences relating to weather, climate and water. Their win- software, and ROSA weather ning paper, which was published in the Bulletin of the American station with a runway pavement Meteorological Society, Vol. 80, No. 2, February 1999, presents the results of the sensor were presented in the ex- Pilot Radiation Observation Experiment (PROBE). hibition. The SAFIR system is a complete lightning localization Advances in calibration and measurement methodology system designed to provide early detection and forecasting The winning paper describes the deployment of a suite of state-of-the-art re- of lightning and thunderstorm search instruments over the Tropical Western Pacific including the dual-fre- hazards. quency Microwave Water Substance Radiometers (MWSRs) to determine the quality of radiosonde humidity observations, and the unique Fourier Transform Vaisala gave two Infrared Radiometer (FTIR). The area covered is roughly between 10 °N and 10 presentations °S and from Indonesia to near Christmas Island. The high resolution of the radiosonde provided the vertical structure and the MWSR the temporal structure Aapo Koski from Vaisala gave a of the atmosphere. The MWSR could identify liquid clouds, while the FTIR presentation entitled “Vaisala’s could identify ice clouds. In this respect, the experiment yielded numerous im- Next Generation Radiosound- portant advances in calibration and measurement methodology, especially re- ing Ground Equipment”, while lating to the synergistic use of data from multiple sensors. As a result, two long- Hannu Jauhiainen gave a pre- term climate observing stations are currently operating in the Tropical Western sentation on “The Accuracy Pacific and as many as three others may be deployed in this important, but data- and Performance of the New sparse, region of the world, referred to as the Pacific “warm pool”. Vaisala RS90 Radiosonde in The Professor Vilho Vaisala Award, which consists of a medal, a diploma and Operational Use”. cash, was instituted in 1985 when the WMO Executive Council accepted the offer of Vaisala Corporation to establish a WMO Trust Fund for the creation of the Award for authors of outstanding scientific research papers in the field of instruments and methods of observation. 41621Y_Vaisala156 6.4.2001 10:10 Sivu 40

The French Air and Space Academy Awards the “Grand Prix” to the SAFIR System Team

The French Air and Space Academy has awarded its year 2000 “Grand Prix” to the SAFIR system development teams of Vaisala and ONERA (the French National Aerospace Research Agency). This award acknowledges exceptional technological achievements benefiting the aviation and space community.

SAFIR Thunderstorm Forecasting System The SAFIR System applies the latest aerospace technology to the early detection and forecasting of lightning and thunderstorm hazards for a wide range of users. Due to its state-of-the-art technology and range of operational installations, the SAFIR system has become the reference system for Total Lightning Detection. The SAFIR system has resulted from advanced R&D programs conducted by the French National Aerospace Research Agency (ONERA) on lightning prevention and storm forecasts for aeronau- tics, defense and space applications. Specifically designed for total lightning detection, SAFIR is a breakthrough in lightning technology. SAFIR provides complete in- The SAFIR system provides complete information on thunderstorms. formation on thunderstorms, ranging from accurate localization and characterization of lightning strikes to early detection and forecasting of in-flight and on-the- ground thunderstorms hazards. 41621Y_Vaisala156 6.4.2001 10:10 Sivu 41

Philippe Richard General Manager Vaisala Thunderstorm SBU Vaisala Dimensions Meyreuil, France

or a decade, the • In 1985–1988, ONERA SAFIR system (Sur- launched the SAFIR devel- veillance et Alerte opment project for the F Foudre par Interféro- French Department of métrie Radioélectrique) has Defense and the National served the French aerospace Space Agency (CNES). The centers and numerous interna- first systems were put into tional users in the aviation and operation for the European meteorological fields. Space Center (CSG) in The unique SAFIR system Kourou (French Guiana), was the first to be designed for and the DOD Flight Test wide-coverage “Total Lightning” Center (CEL), in southwest- detection to provide early de- ern France. tection and nowcasting of • In 1989, the Dimensions thunderstorm hazards on a na- company was founded as a tional scale. Due to its benefits spin-off of ONERA for the in hazards nowcasting for avia- industrialization and com- tion, aerospace, meteorology, mercialization of the SAFIR hydrology and electricity, SAFIR System. has been chosen by the French aerospace centers and by nu- • In 1990–2000, Dimensions merous meteorological services developed SAFIR opera- in France and abroad. tional applications for meteorology, aviation, hydrology Historical background and electricity. SAFIR was of SAFIR recognized as a unique reference for Total Lightning de- SAFIR has gone through sever- tection and storm nowcast- al phases, starting from funda- ing through its commercial mental research conducted at successes in Europe and ONERA and ending with op- Asia. erational applications devel- • ONERA continued research oped by Vaisala Dimensions. with a 3D SAFIR system in • At the end of the 1970s, the fields of aviation appli- ONERA started research on cations and atmospheric ways of protecting airplanes chemistry. and space launchers from at- • In 2000, Dimensions joined mospheric electricity and the Vaisala Group. lightning. • Vaisala Dimensions is now a • In 1981–1984, field experi- partner in the ONERA ments were carried out in “Orages” project for VHF SAFIR’s Grand Prix Team, from left to right: Patrice Africa, the United States satellite-borne lightning de- Blanchet, Philippe Richard, Pierre Laroche, Anne and France. tection. Bondiou Clergerie, André Soulage, and Jean Yves Lojou.

The awarded SAFIR team Vaisala Dimensions /Thunderstorm Group Philippe Richard: General Manager of Vaisala Thunderstorm SBU; founder of Dimensions, head of the SAFIR development group at ONERA from 1980 to 1989.

André Soulage: Technical Director of the Vaisala Thunderstorm Group; founder of Dimensions, Technical Manager for SAFIR system development at ONERA from 1984 to 1989.

Jean Yves Lojou: R&D Manager at the Vaisala Thunderstorm Group.

ONERA (French National Aerospace Research Agency) Pierre Laroche: Head of the Atmospheric Environment Research Unit at ONERA, President of the International Commission on Atmospheric Electricity of IUGG

Anne Bondiou Clergerie: Chief Scientist, Atmospheric Environment Research Unit, ONERA

Patrice Blanchet: SAFIR Technical Manager, Atmospheric Environment Research Unit, ONERA. 156/2001 41 41621Y_Vaisala156 6.4.2001 10:11 Sivu 42

TECO-2000 and METEOREX-2000 Exhibition China Hosts 2000 WMO Meetings

Beijing is a city of history and culture. The Forbidden City attracts many visitors.

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Marit Finne Editor-in-chief Vaisala News Vaisala Helsinki Finland The international meteorological community gathered in Beijing in October for the WMO Technical Conference on Meteorological and Environmental Instruments and Methods of Observation (TECO-2000). The METEOREX- 2000 Exhibition was held in conjunction with TECO-2000.

rom 23 to 27 Octo- Technical presentations gy upgrade and changes in peo- ber 2000, the TECO- ple’s mentality are providing 2000 Conference on Vaisala representatives gave pre- tremendous opportunities for F Meteorological and sentations on the latest technolo- the meteorological industry. Environmental Instruments gy. Philippe Richard from New technologies are continu- and Methods of Observation Vaisala Dimensions in France ously absorbed into a tradition- was hosted by the China presented a paper on total light- al meteorological industry that Meteorological Administration ning detection technology and is now more influential and in Beijing. The main theme of Ingo Schesonka from Vaisala lively than ever before. METEO- the conference was ‘Opera- Impulsphysik in Germany REX has become one of the tional Measurement Technol- spoke about automatic cloud most important exhibitions in ogies for the Next Decade – coverage determination. the meteorological industry. Critical Change or Business as Some meteorological services Not only does METEOREX Usual’. The METEOREX-2000 highlighted Vaisala’s instru- promote new products with Exhibition for meteorological ments in their presentations. live technology demonstra- instruments and services was The UK Met Office presented tions, but it is also a place organized in conjunction with the results of a comparison test where professionals exchange the conference. Approximately on ceilometers which included ideas and discuss industrial de- 270 visitors from all over the the Vaisala Ceilometer CT25K. velopment face to face. world attended the conference. A similar comparison test had Vaisala showcased a wide The purpose of the TECO- been carried out by the Deutsch product range at METEOREX- 2000 conference was to give Wetter Dienst on the current 2000. We also gave presenta- the participants an opportunity weather sensors, including the tions on new products, includ- to discuss news in their field. A Vaisala FD12P. Those results ing SAFIR lightening detection, large number of papers dis- were also presented at the con- the MetMan meteorological played innovations for improv- ference. Furthermore, there was data management system and ing the quality and homogenei- a presentation on the RS90 ra- DigiCORA III ground equip- ty of observations. diosondes by the UK Met ment to selected customer Instrument experts from vari- Office and another on Vaisala’s groups. ous sectors addressed the fol- AUTOSONDE by the Aus- A total of 56 manufacturers of lowing main subjects: tralian Bureau of Meteorology. meteorological instruments and systems for various applications 1. Measurement technology, Vaisala’s product displayed their products. performance and quality as- presentations surance related to • Surface observation systems As we stride into the 21st century, social progress, technolo- • In-situ and remote upper-air observation systems • Weather radars and lightning detection systems • Measurement of the atmospheric composition • Instruments and systems operated under harsh climatological environmental conditions 2. Management of technical support for operational measurements 3. Capacity-building and technological transfer related to instruments and methods of observations (including edu- Vaisala demonstrated its latest meteorological cation and training) observations technology at METEOREX-2000.

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Marit Finne Editor-in-Chief Vaisala Supports Finnish Vaisala News Vaisala Helsinki Finland Technical Universities

The Helsinki University of Technology is located in Espoo. The HUT campus is famous throughout the world for the architecture of Alvar Aalto.

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In Finland the rapid growth of the electronics professor in a ‘hot’ field, I have Student intake has industry has created an increasing demand for always had quite good connec- increased tions with the industry through well-educated people. At the same time, Finnish research projects and I also hap- The Finnish universities of tech- employers have found that a lack of sufficiently- pened to be Vice-Rector of nology and the engineering fac- qualified engineers and technical employees has HUT at the time this program ulties of some other universities created a bottleneck. Therefore, in 1999, fifteen was planned and started. My have expanded their programs in role has been to coordinate the IT field over many years. For Finnish companies, including Vaisala, joined a these activities at HUT and ne- example, at the Electrical and special donation program to contribute to the gotiate donations with manu- Communications Engineering three major universities of technology in facturing companies.” Department (ECE) of HUT, the According to Professor undergraduate student intake Finland. Räisänen, one of the limiting fac- was approximately 250 in 1992, tors has been the lack of money 350 in 1997, 450 in 1998 and 550 from the government budget. In in 2000. 1998, the three major Finnish The student intake has also universities were asked to make a increased in a similar fashion at survey of their material needs re- the Department of Computer garding basic education in the IT Science and Engineering. How- he rapid growth of field for 1999–2001. This survey ever, there are good job mar- the electronics in- indicated an immediate need for kets in other engineering fields dustry and services equipment (computers, measure- as well, and consequently the T in Finland has creat- ment equipment, etc.) costing student intake in other depart- ed an increasing demand for over FIM 100 million. Fifteen ments, with other study curric- well-educated people. The bot- Finnish companies promised to ula, has remained steady – in tleneck has been in the techni- help the universities with FIM 47 other words, the total universi- cal universities, which have not million over three years ty student population has in- been able to educate enough (1999–2001) and asked the creased a lot over the past ten Master of Science level engi- Ministry of Education and uni- years. neers in electronics, computer versities to provide an equal Unfortunately, the funding technology and, especially, amount. that the university receives telecommunications. There- This was the origin of the from the Ministry of Education fore, in 1999, a group of Finnish special donation program to has also remained stable (i.e. at companies, including Vaisala, contribute to the three major the same level) over the past ten joined a special donation pro- universities of technology in years. Though the funding gram to contribute to the three Finland. These universities are from other sources has in- major universities of technolo- located in Helsinki, Tampere creased quite substantially, that gy in Finland. and Oulu. The companies are funding has been earmarked for supporting the universities by research. Therefore, undergrad- Background of the investing in new instruments, uate education in the universi- donation program computers, software etc. in a ties of technology has suffered three-year program which will from ever-decreasing funding Antti Räisänen works as profes- continue until the end of 2001. per student, and the effect has sor of Radio Engineering at the Additionally, the Ministry of been especially noticeable in Helsinki University of Tech- Education promised to in- the IT sector. Fortunately, the nology (HUT). He says that crease its budget funding for IT industry has realized this fact there are three reasons why he is these universities by the same and come to help. involved in this venture. “I am a amount.

Matti Tempakka is Vaisala’s contact person for the donation program. He explains that Vaisala’s contribution has been an annual sum of money.

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Kathryn Schlichting Marketing Manager Vaisala Handar Business Unit Sunnyvale, CA USA

in their careers and companies compact, low cost can meet the urgent demand receiver/demodula- Antti Räisänen works as professor of Radio Engineering for labor more quickly. A tor is at the heart of at Helsinki University of Technology (HUT). He is their Matti Tempakka thinks that, the Direct Readout contact person for the donation program. in the long term, companies Ground Station (DRGS) and a should collaborate even more small desktop satellite down- with the universities to ensure link for hydromet users. The that sufficient numbers of sleek case of the satellite receiv- young people select the courses er/demodulator package is the Vaisala’s contribution HUT’s experiences from which give them the know- size of a CD ROM drive. The the project ledge profile that best suits the design takes advantage of “Vaisala took the initiative needs of business. today’s advanced digital signal from the very beginning. We So far, eleven companies have “The donations have helped processing techniques which have a constant need for new contributed to the Helsinki the situation a lot, especially in provide an avenue for incorpo- highly-educated people from University of Technology. computer classes. With these rating future data collection these universities and we felt a Furthermore, four companies donations, and our other fund- system capabilities through responsibility to join the pro- have promised donations for ing, we have purchased several firmware upgrades. A single gram,“ says Matti Tempakka, HUT. Donations have consisted hundred PCs and workstations desktop unit can support four Vaisala’s Director of Business of money, hardware and soft- for our computer classes at channels simultaneously with a Process Development. ware, and measurement devices. HUT. In some cases the situa- fifth channel tracking the pilot Matti Tempakka is Vaisala’s Finnish employers have tion in student laboratories has tone. As a point of reference, a contact person for the dona- learned that increasing the sup- been much improved, too. We single DRGS receiver/demodu- tion program. He explains that ply of educated people from have purchased new oscillo- lator can support up to 720 self Vaisala’s contribution has been the universities of technology is scopes, new volt meters, new timed DCPs reporting at three an annual sum of money. As a very challenging task. network analyzers and so on,” hour intervals and being as- part of the donation, one meas- All universities are compet- says Antti Räisänen. signed one minute transmis- uring instrument, specified by ing harder than ever before for According to Professor sion slots. the university, was delivered to the best talents and although Räisänen, it is difficult to attract the universities of technology technical studies are attracting more students to study in a Monitoring the in Helsinki and Tampere. very good students, the average technical field: “Almost all stu- hydrologic control According to Mr. Tempakka, level of the increased student dents taking the long course in structures by contributing to the universi- population in the technical uni- mathematics at high school are ties, Vaisala has been drawn to versities is not as good as be- already going on to the universi- The complete DRGS system the attention of the students. fore. So, the acceptance criteria ties of technology and the engi- consists of modular sets of out- “However, Vaisala has not oth- had to come down a little to en- neering and natural science fac- door and indoor equipment. erwise set any further condi- sure sufficient intake. During ulties of other Finnish universi- The outdoor equipment con- tions on the use of the dona- the course of studies, which ties. This task is a lot easier if we sists of an elevation-azimuth tions. This has been appreciat- takes about six years on average, can give a good picture of our- antenna and low noise amplifi- ed by the recipients, because 30 per cent of students decide selves – the joint venture effort er, and the feed and down-con- they have received the major to drop out. So, the yield of this certainly helps in this. Of verter portions of the system. part of the contributions in the process is only 70 per cent. course, we visit high schools The indoor equipment inform of products or services.” Alongside this normal form of and invite students to visit us, cludes the integrated receiv- He explains that Vaisala has education, most universities of for example. We are also recruit- er/demodulator and system directed 80 per cent of its contri- technology have started new ing more and more foreign stu- controller, UBS, or Universal bution to the Helsinki Uni- transformation programs, in dents, especially at the Bachelor Base Station. versity of Technology and 20 per which adult people gain addi- of Science level, to study to- A Vaisala DRGS system is cent to the Tampere University tional knowledge and skills. wards our Master of Science being used by the Vicksburg of Technology. Thus they can make a new start (Diploma Engineer) degree.” District of the Mississippi

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Total Network Solution using GOES Direct Readout Ground Station in Vicksburg Mississippi

The Vaisala Direct Readout Ground Station (DRGS) com- pletes a network solution for remote hydromet data collection platform (DCP) stations using GOES satellite telemetry.

Valley Division (MVD) of the US Army Corps of Engineers (COE). Vicksburg is responsible for managing the water in a 68,000 square mile area in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. One hundred and thirty stations in the Vicksburg District collect water stage, precipitation and water quality data, all of which is received by the DRGS.

“The primary purpose for the COURTESY:PHOTOS TERRY TEMPLE, US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS VICKSBURG DISTRICT. DRGS is to collect real-time data to monitor the hydrologic control structures in the Vicksburg Temple comments that “the sis. If the UBS is connected to Visksburg Districts’ five meter District, such as locks and dams, DRGS is now the primary sys- a local area network (LAN), the antenna dish used to receive the data gate operated structures and tem to receive the GOES data data files are available to any from the East GOES satellite. reservoir control systems,” says for us here in Vicksburg. We user that is also connected to Terry Temple, the Hydrologic have a back-up system in place, the same LAN. Technician from Vicksburg. The but it has been rare that we received data is also published in have experienced any down- ‘The Stage and Discharge of the time on our DRGS system Mississippi River and Tributaries since it was installed. It is a very in the Vicksburg District’, a year- reliable system.” Please contact Vaisala Handar Business Unit for more information, ly archive of the Corps of An integral part of the 408-734-9640 or email us at [email protected] Engineers. In addition, the data DRGS is the Universal Base is also automatically piped to the Station, UBS, which is the sys- Vicksburg District Water tem controller for the DRGS. Control web site. The Pentium-based computer uses a Windows 95/98/NT op- Nearly 500 stations erating system allowing multi- in the network ple application programs to open at one time. After config- The Vicksburg DRGS also re- uring the DRGS through soft- ceives data from other COE ware, the UBS automatically Districts within the Mississippi displays the data in several dif- Valley Division, as well as other ferent text and graphical for- government agencies such as mats, as well as writing the data the National Weather Service. to ASCII text files on disk and The total number of stations in storing the information in a the network is nearly 500. To ac- Microsoft Access database. commodate the number of sta- Data can also be charted, tions as they are assigned to the and the charts can be cus- different GOES (Geostationary tomized, printed or saved on Operational Environmental disk. ASCII data files on disk Satellite) channels, Vicksburg are easily opened in Microsoft Dual four channel DRGS receivers and 547C/UBS 2000 Base Station located uses two DRGS receivers. Mr. Excel for more detailed analy- in the Vicksburg District office. The map of the district is in the background.

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www.vaisala.com

Europe Vaisala Dimensions SA 7, Europarc Ste-Victoire Vaisala Oyj F-13590 Meyreuil P.O. Box 26, FIN-00421 Helsinki FRANCE FINLAND Phone int.: +33 4 4212 6464 Phone int.: +358 9 894 91 Telefax: +33 4 4212 6474 Telefax: +358 9 8949 2227 http://www.vaisala.com North America Vaisala Malmö Drottninggatan 1 D Vaisala Inc. S - 212 11 Malmö 100 Commerce Way Woburn, MA 01801-1068 SWEDEN USA Phone int.: +46 40 298 991 Phone int.: +1 781 933 4500 Telefax: +46 40 298 992 Telefax: +1 781 933 8029 Phone from Sweden: 0200 848 848 Telefax from Sweden: 0200 849 849 Vaisala Inc. Boulder Operations Vaisala GmbH 8401 Base Line Road Achter de Weiden 10 Boulder, CO 80303-4715 D-22869 Schenefeld USA GERMANY Phone int.: +1 303 499 1701 Phone int: +49 40 839 03 207 Telefax: +1 303 499 1767 Telefax +49 40 839 03 211 Vaisala Inc. Vaisala Impulsphysik GmbH Columbus Operations Achter de Weiden 10 7450 Industrial Parkway D-22869 Schenefeld Plain City, Ohio 43064-9005 GERMANY USA Phone int.: +49 40 839 030 Phone int.: +1 614 873 6880 Telefax. +49 40 839 03 110 Telefax: +1 614 873 6890

Vaisala GmbH Vaisala Inc. Stuttgart Office Handar Business Unit Pestalozzi Str. 8 1288 Reamwood Ave. D-70563 Stuttgart Sunnyvale, CA 94089-2233 GERMANY USA Phone int.: +49 711 734 057 Phone int.: +1 408 734 9640 Telefax: +49 711 735 6340 Telefax: +1 408 734 0655 Asia and Pacific Vaisala GmbH Bonn Office Vaisala KK Adenauerallee 46 a 42 Kagurazaka 6-Chome D-53110 Bonn Shinjuku-ku GERMANY Tokyo 162-0825 Phone int.: +49 228 912 5110 JAPAN Telefax: +49 228 912 5111 Phone int.: +81 3 3266 9611 Telefax: +81 3 3266 9610 Vaisala GmbH Bremerhaven Office Vaisala KK Buchtstrasse 45 Osaka Office D-27570 Bremerhaven 1-12-15, Higashimikuni GERMANY Yodogawa-ku, Osaka 532-0002 Phone int.: +49 471 170 1655 JAPAN Telefax: +49 471 170 1755 Phone int.: +81 6 6391 2441 Telefax: +81 6 6391 2442 Vaisala Ltd Birmingham Operations Vaisala Pty Ltd Vaisala House 3 Guest Street 349 Bristol Road Hawthorn, VIC 3122 Birmingham B5 7SW AUSTRALIA UNITED KINGDOM Phone int.: +61 3 9818 4200 Phone int.: +44 121 683 1200 Telefax: +61 3 9818 4522 Telefax: +44 121 683 1299 A.C.N. 006 500 616

Vaisala Ltd Vaisala Beijing Representative Office Newmarket Office Wangfujing Grand Hotel Suffolk House Room 518-520 Fordham Road 57, Wangfujing Street ISO 9002 Newmarket Beijing 100006 Suffolk CB8 7AA PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF UNITED KINGDOM CHINA Phone int.: +44 1638 674 400 Phone int.: +86 10 6522 4050 Telefax: +44 1638 674 411 Telefax: +86 10 6522 4051

Vaisala SA Vaisala Regional Office Malaysia 2, rue Stéphenson (escalier 2bis) 2nd Fl. Wisma Chinese Chamber F-78181 Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines 258 Jalan Ampang Cedex 50450 Kuala Lumpur FRANCE MALAYSIA Phone int.: +33 1 3057 2728 Phone int.: +60 3 4257 1376 Telefax: +33 1 3096 0858 Telefax: +60 3 4259 1176 C010003en 2001-04 Sävypaino /Offset-kopio Oy 2001