Use of personal automobiles for collecting weather data to augment centralized weather observing systems. The transportation community is well on its way toward the development of wireless vehicle capabilities whereby vehicles communicate with other vehicles and the road infrastructure to improve safety and mobility and to reduce environmental impacts (e.g., http://www.intellidriveusa.org). In the near future, it will be possible for millions of vehicles to anonymously collect direct (e.g., temperature, pressure) and indirect (e.g., wiper status, anti-lock brake system status) measurements of the road and atmospheric conditions in their immediate surroundings. This will greatly expand the current weather observation network, particularly with respect to the roadway environment.
The Vehicle Data Translator (VDT) is being developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research NCAR with funding and support from the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA) IntelliDriveSM initiative and direction from the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Road Weather Management Program.
The VDT project has two main aims, namely to answer the following questions (1) What is the accuracy and precision of vehicle-based weather observations?; and (2) How can vehicle-based weather observations be combined with more traditional observations, such as radar and in-situ weather observing platforms, to create road and atmospheric hazard products for a variety of users? Key individuals include Sheldon Drobot (NCAR), Michael Chapman (NCAR), Elena Schuler (NCAR), Gerry Wiener (NCAR), Brice Lambi (NCAR), William Mahoney III (NCAR), Paul Pisano (FHWA), and Benjamin McKeever (RITA).
To be posted when available.
| Project Leads | Sheldon Drobot (drobot@ucar.edu) Paul Pisano (Paul.Pisano@dot.gov) Ben McKeever (Ben.Mckeever@dot.gov) |
| UCAR Project Website for IntelliDrive | http://www.rap.ucar.edu/projects/intellidrive/ |
| IntelliDrive Project Website | http://www.intellidriveusa.org |
Example of VDT display showing "road precipitation" product.
