Vaisala News

165/2004 Report on the 2002-2003 U.S. NLDN® System-wide Upgrade Exploring Long-range Lightning Detection over the Oceans Vaisala Radiosonde RS92 on Trial in Italy Vaisala Upgrades Dubai International Airport Contents Over the past two years, Vaisala has invested in the most comprehensive upgrade of the President's Column 3 North American Lightning Detection Network to date. The upgrade included the Vaisala Remote Sensing installation of the new Vaisala IMPACT ESP Lightning sensors throughout the Report on the 2002-2003 U.S. NLDN® continental United States. The upgrade will System-wide Upgrade 4 improve the performance of the sensors, minimize maintenance and downtime and Exploring Long-range Lightning Detection build a stronger base for future over the Oceans 9 improvements. Vaisala takes part in the 84th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting in Seattle 11 In May 2004 Vaisala's new clean room was Vaisala Soundings taken into operation and the production of sensors was re-started. A clean room is a Vaisala Radiosonde RS92 on Trial in Italy 12 nearly particle-free area where air quality, temperature and humidity are carefully Vaisala HydroMet regulated to ensure that sensitive equipment is free from contamination. The new facility is Chilean Navy Weather Service Invests in state-of-the-art and will allow Vaisala to continue to produce high quality sensors for Vaisala Automatic Weather Stations 18 our products. Update of the Vaisala Automatic Weather Stations MAWS101 Monitoring Transmission Lines 19 Hydrometeorological Real-time network in The Vaisala Radiosonde RS92 family has North-eastern Italy 20 been available on the market for over a year. In November 2003 and March 2004 testing Co-operating to Improve was carried out in Italy to compare the PTU measurement performance of the Vaisala Water Quality Measurements in Finnish Waterways 22 Radiosonde RS92 and the Vaisala RS90. Vaisala Road Weather Norwegian Roads Safer with Vaisala's Remote Measurement and Forecasting Technology 23 Vaisala Aviation Weather Vaisala updgrades Dubai International Airport 24 Cover photo: General Grand Canyon, Arizona USA Vaisala Invests 6.5 million Euros in New Clean Room 26 Secretary General of the World Meteorological Organization Visits Vaisala 28 In Vaisala 30 Editor-in-Chief: Printed in Finland by Angela Billings Edita Prima, Finland Publisher: ISSN 1238-2388 Vaisala in Brief Vaisala Oyj P.O. Box 26 – We develop, manufacture and – We focus on market segments FIN-00421 Helsinki market products and services for where we can be the world leader, FINLAND environmental and industrial the preferred supplier. We put a Phone (int.): measurements. high priority on customer satis- ONM +358 9 894 91 IR EN NV T E A faction and product leadership. L IC L Telefax: D A B – The purpose of these measure- We secure our competitive advan- R E O +358 9 8949 2227 L ments is to provide a basis for a tage through economies of scale N better quality of life, cost sa- and scope. Internet: vings, environmental protection, http://www.vaisala.com 441 002 improved safety and better per- Design and Artwork: Printed matter formance. Edita Prima 2 165/2004 President’s Column Insource the core, outsource the context “Insource the core, outsource the context” is a business slogan, which is ap- plied in many global compa- nies. The key message is that in order to be competitive, resources should be focused on the core activities of the business, that is to say, to areas which generate a competitive edge. Non-core or context activities should be purchased from competent service providers. At times it is even better to take some of the core pieces from strategic partners, if you are unable to meet the vol- ume required by that activity. I believe that this guidance applies equally well to the meteorological community. For most of our customers the ultimate need is weather observa- tion data or further value added information, supporting operational decision making in a specific application. Activ- ities such as integrating and increasingly more expensive to oped expertise by focusing their stalling a system, owning it, op- maintain resources for that on efforts on their core. A wide erating it and maintaining it, the local level. range of manufacturing activities have all traditionally been The paradigm is changing belongs to this category. This mandatory in order to meet and the key word today is ser- transformation has helped us to one's need for data or informa- vice. I believe that our customers develop our competitiveness tion. Those originally mandatory will increasingly need services as and growth. activities may have changed over they begin to focus their re- I may have been a bit time to become activities deter- sources on their core activities. provocative above. But we have mined to be context. At the same time they will in- good experience already in Technology development is creasingly want supporting serv- many areas of shifting from be- also creating a push for change. ices from a reliable partner. Our ing solely a provider of hardware Increasing automation makes technical and application com- to providing services and data. equipment challenging to main- petencies give us a good position In the U.S we already provide tain and upgrade. During the to take responsibility in system lightning data to multiple appli- equipment's lifespan upgrades integration, maintenance, opera- cations. This will be an area to can increase the value of data tions, financing, and to meet the increase our offerings. and information. Using the In- ultimate needs of the customer: Let's talk about it. ● ternet enables new system archi- deliver high quality information tectures, where central process- and data. ing can be done efficiently on a Vaisala has done similar global level. More skills are need- things in our own industrial ac- ed to manage the recent develop- tivity. We rely on competent ser- Pekka Ketonen ments in technology and it is in- vice providers, who have devel- President and CEO 165/2004 3 Michael J. Grogan Product Manager, Network Data and Software Vaisala Tucson, USA Vaisala's U.S. National Lightning Detection Network® Report on the 2002-2003 U.S. NLDN® System-wide Two years ago, Vaisala began an ambitious project to Upgrade re-build the National Lightning Detection Network (NLDN) by replacing more than 100 early generation sensors with new, more sensitive lightning sensors to improve network performance and expand applica- tions. Initial third-party validation studies indicate that the network is operating better than ever with minimum 90 percent flash detection efficiency. 4 165/2004 and sensor downtime by replacing aging sensors and sensing station equipment ● Build a stronger base for future improvements, including cloud lightning detection oppor- tunities Pre-Upgrade Operations In the early 1990s, the NLDN consisted of early generation magnetic direction finding sensors. The network detected 65 to 80 percent of cloud-to-ground lightning discharges with location accuracy ranging from 2 to 4 kilometers. The first major upgrade proj- Image shows 24 hours of lightning data from the U.S. National Lightning Detection Network ect to the NLDN began in 1994 and was completed in 1995. Vaisala – then Global Atmos- pherics – partnered with the Electric Power Research Institute U.S. National to improve network performance to produce operational Lightning Detection benefits targeted at the electric ® utility industry. Electric power Network Backgrounder utilities needed more detailed information and more accurate eather forecasters in both public and private lightning locations to design W sectors use real-time lightning maps and indi- more effective lightning protec- vidual lightning stroke characteristics from the NLDN® tion to improve the reliability of to closely monitor thunderstorm development, transmission and distribution strength, and paths for more accurate severe weather systems. The focus of the 1994- forecasting and for issuing warnings. NLDN users in- 1995 upgrade project was to: clude the National Weather Service, NASA, FAA, and ● Report strokes as well as other government agencies. Operations that are affect- flashes ed by lightning and thunderstorms – electric power ● Improve location accuracy utilities, airports, telecommunications, explosives han- ● Increase percentage of dling and others – rely on NLDN lightning data to tell lightning discharges detected which facilities are at increased risk from thunder- ● Report peak current esti- storms. ver the past two years, mates for cloud-to-ground light- NLDN information is used for monitoring current Vaisala has invested in ning strokes conditions and for studying past events. Since 1989, the O the most sweeping up- NLDN has reported more than 20 million cloud-to- grade yet of the NLDN with the The primary means to ground lightning flashes that occur every year, creating installation of new Vaisala IM- achieve these goals was to em- a comprehensive archive of lightning data used for sta- PACT ESP Lightning Sensors at ploy the latest lightning sensor tistical and forensic analysis. sensing stations throughout the technology; a combination of NLDN data is available to subscribers through vari- continental United States. These time-of-arrival and magnetic di- ous lightning mapping software and Internet lightning new sensors replaced more than rection finding methods in a sin- tracking services. These application tools are specialized 100 of the first generation IM- gle sensor, the original IMPACT for real-time lightning tracking and warning or for PACT Lightning Sensors and Lightning Sensor. At the com- analysis of past lightning activity. Real-time data is deli- older LPATS III Lightning Sen- pletion of the 1994-1995 project, vered by satellite broadcast or TCP/IP. Historic lightning sors. the network consisted of 47 of data is delivered by CD or via traditional Internet pro- The main goals of the up- the new combined technology tocols.

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