Wind Profilers Added to Vaisala Product Range Remote Sensing
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42826Ymi_158VAISALANEWS 14.12.2001 17:53 Sivu 1 158/2002158/2002 Wind Profilers Added to Vaisala Product Range Vaisala expands into remote sensing Remote Sensing Division founded Vaisala MIDAS IV at New Athens International Airport Ready for Olympics 2004 Weather Observation with MAWS enables Study of Pollution in Mountains 42826Ymi_158VAISALANEWS 14.12.2001 17:53 Sivu 2 Contents President’s Column 3 Remote Sensing The Finnish Ultraviolet International Research Center Wind Profilers Added to Vaisala Product Range 4 (FUVIRC) was established at Vaisala Expands into Remote Sensing 6 Sodankylä in Lapland as a joint NOAA CRADA Management Review Board project of the Finnish Meets in Helsinki 7 Meteorological Institute and the Upper Air University of Oulu. Encouraging multidisciplinary UK Met Office Accepts DigiCORA III research, the new center will for Operational Use 8 serve ecosystem research, Broader Automation of Observations in Spain 10 human health studies, and Multidisciplinary Studies on the Effects atmospheric chemistry research. of Ozone Depletion at Sodankylä 13 Surface Weather MAWS Enables the Study of Pollution in Mountains 15 The Vaisala MAWS Automatic Twenty Automatic Weather Stations Donated to Schools 17 Weather Station enables weather observations in Automatic Flood Alert System mountainous areas where acid Protects the People of Son La in Vietnam 18 rain is leading to forest decline. The British Army’s Royal Artillery The National Institute for Acquires Mobile TACMET Systems 20 Environmental Studies of Japan Cooperation between China Meteorological studies the effects of acid rain Administration and Vaisala 21 and fog at Mt. Shirane in Nikko New Present Weather Detector PWD21 National Park, using the data Offers Versatile Measurements 22 collected with MAWS. GOES High Data Rate Transmitters Now Certified 23 Aviation MIDAS IV Automatic Weather Observation System The Royal Meteorological at Athens International Airport 24 Society awarded the Fitzroy AW11 Aviation Weather Reporter Prize to Dr. Jianmin Shao at Gliding Championships 28 (Vaisala Birmingham) in Major AWOS Contract for Vaisala recognition of his contribution the Lone Star State 30 to the development of ice MIDAS IV System with Integrated Management prediction models for both to Turkish Airports 31 forecasting and nowcasting. Traffic Weather The RMS Awards Prestigious Fitzroy Prize to Dr. Jianmin Shao 32 Complaints Management System at Vaisala Birmingham Certified 34 General European Meteorological Society and Future Trends in Meteorology at ECAM 35 Cover photo: Aurora borealis by Jouni Jussila, Finland. New Service Contract Concept 36 Because the Sun’s activity has been at its maxi- Extensive Customer Survey 37 mum in 2001, this year has been especially Vaisala Office in Boston Turns 20 good for the aurora borealis in Finland. Jouni - Professional Team serving North American Customers 38 Jussila, a member of the Space Physics Group New Vaisala Office in Canada 39 at the University of Oulu, specializes in auro- ral research. The photo on the cover was taken in March 2001 at Haapavesi, North Finland. Editor-in-Chief: Design and Artwork: Vaisala in Brief Marit Finne Non Stop Studiot Oy (absent on study leave Editors: — We develop, manufacture — We focus on market seg- June 1, 2001 – July 15, Bellcrest Language and market products and ser- ments where we can be the 2002) Services Oy vices for environmental and world leader, the preferred Acting Editor-in- Printed in Finland by industrial measurements. supplier. We put high priori- Chief: Sävypaino, Finland ty on customer satisfaction Ritva Siikamäki — The purpose of these mea- and product leadership. We Publisher: surements is to provide a basis secure our competitive ad- Vaisala Oyj, P.O. Box 26 FIN-00421 Helsinki for a better quality of life, cost vantage through economies FINLAND savings, protection of the en- of scale and scope. vironment, improved safety Phone (int.): +358 9 894 91 and better performance. Telefax: +358 9 8949 2227 Internet: 158/2002 http://www.vaisala.com ISSN 1238-2388 42826Ymi_158VAISALANEWS 14.12.2001 17:53 Sivu 3 I President’s Column I Remote and In-situ Sensing eteorological in-situ ning Localization System. These place ground-based in-situ obser- measurements have activities form the new Remote vations. I have replied that this M traditionally been Sensing Division. In the future will hardly take place. These two Vaisala’s forté. For we want to supply all the major observation technologies will more than 60 years we have remote sensing technologies to rather be complementary to each been developing equipment for our customers through this divi- other. Satellites provide a good this purpose. However, in the sion. overview, whereas the ground- field of remote sensing our tech- The applications of ground- based observation network offers nology has been confined to based remote sensing are main- measurement accuracy. measuring cloud height with an ly in nowcasting and mesoscale In a similar manner, ground- optical ceilometer. forecasts. These services can be based remote sensing and in- Since we want to serve profes- generic, both for everyone and situ observations complement sional meteorologists in all their specific to the application. The each other. An interesting chal- weather observation needs, we demand for such services will lenge is to be able to utilize this have decided to extend our increase in the years to come. complementarity to the full. We product range to radio-frequen- The media for relaying these want to participate in this ef- cy remote sensing technology. short-term forecasts already fort, too. I We have carried out research in exist, e.g. mobile phones and the wind profiling field for sever- the Internet are ideal for this al years. In June 2001 we ac- purpose. quired the wind profiler business The field of remote sensing of Radian International LLC. also encompasses satellite obser- The LAP®-3000 Wind Profiler vations. This field utilizes quite has been developed in coopera- exotic devices and the market tion with researchers of NOAA volume is small. Consequently, (the National Oceanic and it fits rather badly into the defi- Atmospheric Administration) nition of an industrial enter- and has proven its performance prise. This is a field in which we in a number of installation sites. have no aspirations. In 2000, we broadened our prod- I have often been asked Pekka Ketonen uct range with the SAFIR Light- whether weather satellites will re- President and CEO 158/2002 3 42826Ymi_158VAISALANEWS 14.12.2001 17:53 Sivu 4 Wind Profilers Added to Vaisala Product Range Now that wind profilers have been added to its ith the acquisition Wave Propagation Laboratory. product selection, Vaisala now has a full range of the Radian Me- The profiler was refined for of atmospheric remote sensing instruments to W teorological Systems commercial use by Radian so group, Vaisala’s pro- that it could be brought to the assist its customers in meeting a wide range of duct range now includes wind market. requirements. The applications of wind profiling profilers, in the form of the include meteorological and climatological re- LAP®-3000 wind profiler prod- Vertical profiles of wind uct line. Vaisala profiler pro- speed and direction search, aviation, air quality monitoring and re- duction and engineering opera- search, defense operations and land resource tions are based in Boulder, The LAP®-3000 Wind Profiler is management. Additionally, wind profilers are Colorado (USA). The location a “lower atmosphere profiler” – in close proximity to the with a range of approximately used at airports to protect against vertical wind NOAA laboratories and 3000 meters. The remote sens- shear, and in urban areas for urban airshed mod- National Center for Atmos- ing Doppler radar produces a eling. pheric Research, NCAR – en- profile of vertical and horizon- courages scientific cooperation tal winds up to three kilometers and coordination. or more above ground level. The profile includes wind speed The result of a and direction. Vaisala produces cooperation program the Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS) with technolo- The LAP®-3000 Wind Profiler gy developed at the National was designed in a cooperation Oceanic and Atmospheric program between the U.S. Administration. RASS can National Oceanic and measure vertical profiles of vir- Atmospheric Administration tual temperature in the lower (NOAA), Sonoma Technology troposphere, and can be inte- Inc., and Radian International grated with a wind profiler of LLC (Radian). In accordance any frequency to augment the George L. Frederick with the 1991 Cooperative profiler’s capabilities. When a General Manager Research and Development Radio Acoustic Sounding Vaisala Meteorological Agreement (CRADA), the System (RASS) is integrated Systems Inc LAP®-3000 boundary layer pro- with the LAP®-3000, the profile Boulder filer was developed at NOAA’s includes virtual temperature up USA Aeronomy Laboratory and to approximately 1.2 kilome- 4 158/2002 42826Ymi_158VAISALANEWS 14.12.2001 17:53 Sivu 5 ters. The profiler produces these Many established users data by transmitting in three or five orthogonal pointing direc- Current government users of the tions. After transmitting a sig- LAP®-3000 include NOAA, the nal upwards, the profiler re- National Center for Atmospheric ceives the return signals that are Research (NCAR), the National reflected back by the turbulence Aeronautics and Space Admini- in the atmosphere. Then the stration (NASA), the U.S. Depart- profiler computes the wind ment of Defense (DoD), and the speed and direction for the se- U.S. Department of Energy lected number of heights above (DoE), the Royal Netherlands the ground. In this way, the Meteorological Institute (KNMI), LAP®-3000 provides continu- In a typical system set-up, wind and temperature data can be viewed the Swiss Meteorological Insti- ous, real-time atmospheric visually using Graph-XM software. tute, and the Deutscher Wetter- wind and temperature data with dienst (German Weather Service). high spatial resolution. Current U.S. and international Furthermore, the LAP®-3000 Possibilities for versatile in graphic or tabular format.