Weather Information for Surface Transportation (WIST)

A GIS Based Approach for the

Transportation Decision Maker

Hank Pomeranz

Litton PRC Inc

Overview

Why GeoWeather™ Solutions? Some of the issues from last years discussion panels

Our approach to the problem.

A little about GeoWeather functionality

Applicability

Summary

National Weather Service Modernization

GIS Industry growth over last decade is in same key NWS industrial areas representing 20% of the gross national

product.

A Review of Last Years Panel Sessions

Departments of Commerce and Defense Weather

Services and Capabilities for Surface Transportation Decision Support

– Environmental Decision thresholds being adequately met?– Coordination..to create capability and technology transfer leverages.– Clientele defined “thresholds”…Temperature, hydrometeors, wind direction-speed, severe

weather events, black ice accretion, visibility reductions

Commercial Weather Information Production Capabilities and Services

– Integrating the “non-weather” systems into “information”

Federal Agency Weather Information Needs– Right forecast or observation at the critical moment in the decision process– Specific Environmental thresholds– Finer Resolution

A Review of Last Years Panel Sessions

State and Urban/Rural Transit Weather Information Needs

– Customer defined decision thresholds

– Rapid refreshment is critical

– Concerns rising over the ownership of the data and violating proprietary ownership.

Research/Technology Innovation and Decision Support

– “…new technologies, heretofore unrelated to surface transportation…can be applied to solve some of the problems associated with surface transportation…”

GeoWeather™ Solutions

The GeoWeather Partnerships

– Litton PRC - Intergraph Team

– Litton PRC – providing the innovative methods of the $4.5B National Weather Service Modernization Program

– Intergraph – providing state of the art GIS software

– Weather information fused with your GIS data Complete life-cycle weather data management A complete turnkey solution for decision makers Mitigate the adverse impact of weather while minimizing your costs

Intergraph provides the GIS technology and professional services and Litton PRC provides the environmental technology and professional services to decision makers.

A Different Approach – Proprietary data? DATA versus Products

– Customer can buy a receiver and download all the data.– Data is free for local or shared use with NOAAPort

Receive System investment.

– Products can be made locally and shared.

It may not be necessary tobuy data and worryabout proprietary issues.

The National Weather Service SBN

GeoWeatherTM SolutionsGIS Data Sources

Customer providedGIS database

GeoWeather handlesmost commercial GISdatabases.

Remember this bridge

How GeoWeather WorksEvent/Criteria/Action Provides local control over what to monitor and how to react in

your Area of Interest

Events are weather conditions which have an impact on your operations

– Lightning strike, high winds, temperatures, etc.

– Criteria are qualifiers used to evaluate events– Measurements above or below a

specified threshold– below freezing, above 65 knots, etc.

– Actions are responses taken when defined events and criteria occur– Highlighting map areas affected– Displaying inventories– Email, Page, FAX, Print, Network Pop-up, Create Image

Specifying Areas of Interest

The whole state

Buffer around Interstates

Any AOI

Specifying an Area of Interest

Area of Interest

Nowcasting Event - Criteria - Action

Environmental Inputs

Weather overlay on assets map

GIS

50

772

004

NEXRAD Doppler Radar

SurfaceObservations

LightningObservations

12

ForecastingEvent - Criteria - Action

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Analysis12 hour

24 hourtime

lat

lon

GIS/WXMon Tue Wed Thu Fri

2AM

12AM

4AM

6AM

8AM

10AM

12PM

2PM

4PM

6PM

8PM

10PM

WX

GIS

Action

Actions

Actions are responses taken when defined events and criteria occur

– Highlighting map areas affected

– Displaying inventories and creating a report

– Email, Page, FAX, Print, Network Pop-up,

– Create Image– Kick-off additional applications

Transportation

Roads and rails are critical assets

Local, state and federal department of transportation (DOT) agencies must keep roads clear for daily and emergency traffic.

GeoWeather Solutions can determine where Identify roads likely to be affected Warn of the need to check salt or sand

inventories Define areas to deploy snow ploughs or other

vehicles Help plan road closings or detours Automatically notify work crews Fax warnings to other agencies and the public

GeoWeather Solutions - makes weather information available to DOTs to plan and predict how severe

weather affects transportation resources

Federal

U.S. government agencies have extensive assets and critical missions that make weather data essential to decision makers.

Federal agencies have a vested interest in tracking severe weather they include;

Department of Energy Defense Army Corps of Engineers Federal Aviation Administration FEMA

GeoWeather will migrate for use in Hydrology Nuclear, chemical or biological (NBC)

GeoWeather helps the government plan and protect critical assets with up-to-the minute

weather data.

GeoWeather™ Solutions SummaryReal-time environmental data fused with GIS

GeoWeather Solutions applies real-time environmental information into a GIS environment helping customers with mission critical activities.

Planning Asset management Dispatch Routing Daily Operations

GeoWeather Solutions can be help customers mitigate the adverse impact of weather while minimizing their costs.

GeoWeather Solutions includes all the tools to help customers get up-and-running right away.

GeoWeather Solutions analyzes real-time weather information and will help customers assess the impact

on their assets and initiate automated responses.