Wind Radar, Microwave Profiler, and GPS Data Fusion for Mesoscale Modeling

In Phase I we demonstrated that tropospheric wind, temperature, humidity and cloud liquid profiles can improve local weather forecasting. We propose in Phase II to develop "Nowcaster Plus", a turnkey local weather forecast system using local troposphericprofile and regional GPS data to significantly advance forecast skill. Local tropospheric soundings are obtained by a wind radar and a microwave profiler. Regional constraints on three dimensional refractivity are obtained by analysis of slant delays froma GPS network. Nowcaster Plus uses regional model, tropospheric profile, slant GPS and other atmospheric data, as available. Nowcaster Plus has commercial applications in airport operations, construction, agriculture, outdoor sporting and entertainment,electric power management and weather risk financial transactions including weather derivatives. It has military applications in artillery and rocket accuracy, forecasting of battlefield ceiling, visibility, and aircraft icing hazards, and atmosphericdispersion of hazardous materials.