Apparatus and method for providing environmental predictive indicators to emergency response managers

A system for forecasting weather-related events comprising:

• a network meteorological weather sensors including one or more of a stationery weather sensor station, a mobile weather sensor station, a RADAR station, and an un-manned aerial system borne weather sensor station and said weather sensors are geographically located based on infrastructure data and regional environmental characteristic data and communicably linked over a wide area network to a central server;
• a computer system having a memory and one or more processors;
• one or more processor executable programs stored in the memory and executed by the one or more processors, where the one or more processor executable programs include:
• instructions for combining initial large scale model domain boundary conditions based on large scale national weather data combined with local mesonet data from the local mesonet weather sensors and forming a Numerical Forecasting Model parameterized and conditioned based on mesoscale data and local environmental conditions;
• instructions for generating weather prediction data based on the parameterized and conditioned Numerical Forecasting Model;
• and
• instructions for displaying the weather prediction data at a user interface.

A system for predicting weather-related threats, comprising:

• a local mesonet network of meteorological weather monitoring stations having a plurality of monitoring stations communicably linked over a wide area network to a central server where each of said plurality of meteorological weather monitoring stations operable to transmit sensor data to said central server and where each of said plurality of meteorological weather monitoring stations are geographically place based on infrastructure data and regional environmental characteristic data;
• and
• a computing system communicably linked to said central server over said wide area network and having an initialization module adapted for initializing a plurality of boundary conditions for an EAS model domain, where said initialization module has a pre-processing sub-module operable to extract data from a geographic database to define the model domain lower boundary condition, a function operable to extract data imported from a large scale national database to define lateral boundary conditions, and a Metgrid function operable to transform data for the EAS model domain;
• said computing system further comprising an ingestion module adapted for ingesting initial EAS model domain boundary conditions and combining with Local Mesonet data to get numerical forecasting model by importing Local Mesonet Data from the Local Mesonet and transformed by a sampling function into uniform data grid and storing the data grid;
• said computing system further comprising a parameterization scheme module adapted for selecting and tuning a parameterization scheme of the numerical model based at least partially on Local Mesonet Data;
• and said computing system further comprising a Prediction module adapted for generating weather prediction data based on the numerical model and outputting the weather prediction data to a user interface adapted for operator viewing.

A method for predicting weather-related threats, comprising the steps of:

• providing a mesoscale network of meteorological weather monitoring stations by placing plurality of weather monitoring stations geographically based on infrastructure data and environmental data thereby forming a local Mesonet and communicably linking said plurality of meteorological weather monitoring stations over a wide area network to a central server;
• transmitting sensor data from each of said plurality of meteorological weather monitoring stations to said central server;
• initializing a plurality of boundary conditions for a EAS model domain using a computing system having an initialization module adapted for initializing the plurality of boundary conditions for the EAS model domain;
• pre-processing medium scale forecast data with a pre-processing sub-module of said initialization module;
• extracting data from a geographic database to define the model domain lower boundary condition;
• extracting data imported from a national weather service to define lateral boundary conditions;
• transforming the extracted data from the geographic database and the national weather service for the EAS model domain;
• ingesting initial EAS model domain boundary conditions and combining with the Local Mesonet to a large scale Numerical Forecasting model using the ingestion module of the computing system and importing Local Mesonet Data from the Local Mesonet and transformed by a sampling function into uniform data grid and storing;
• selecting and tuning a parameterization scheme based at least partially on Local Mesonet Data using a parameterization scheme module of the computing system;
• and
• generating weather prediction data based on the large scale Numerical Forecasting model and outputting the weather prediction data to a user interface adapted for operator viewing.

A computer system for predicting weather-related threats, comprising:

• a computer system having a memory and one or more processors;
• one or more processor executable programs stored in the memory and executed by the one or more processors, where the one or more processor executable programs include:
• instructions for data ingesting and combining at a computer larger scale numerical weather forecast data with high spatial and high temporal resolution data from a local mesonet thereby creating real time a forecast model having higher spatial and temporal correlation factors between observed and predicted weather conditions;
• instructions for quality control processing the data from the local mesonet by determining if data is within predetermined criteria including one or more of, sensor performance, expected data content, expected data range, temporal data continuity, spatial data consistency and data adjustments for infrastructure;
• instructions for deriving meteorological fields using current and predicted meteorological fields including one or more of divergence, vorticity, moisture advection, wind velocity shear, wind velocity deformation, and gradient wind strength, thereby maximizing temporal and spatial resolution;
• and
• instructions for generating weather prediction data based on a quality controlled weather forecast mode and outputting the weather prediction data to a user interface for operator viewing.

A computer implemented method for providing environmentally predictive indicators and related threats, comprising the steps of:

• assembling at the computer system meteorological sensor data from a plurality of monitoring stations communicably linked over a wide area network and placed geographically based on infrastructure data and natural environmental and man-made regional characteristic data;
• and
• time averaging the meteorological sensor data over a one minute period, and transmitting the aggregate meteorological sensor data in a data package to a central server having program instructions where when said program instructions are executed are adapted to perform the steps of:
• initializing lateral boundary conditions based on large scale numerical weather forecast data and lower boundary conditions based on climatological geographic data for an earth and atmosphere model domain;
• combining model domain boundary conditions and sensor data transformed into a uniform data grid for implementing a forecasting model;
• and
• generating weather prediction data based on the forecasting model and outputting the weather prediction data to a user interface for operator viewing.

A computer implemented method, comprising the steps of:

• receiving from a central server at a uniform time interval for meteorological sensor data;
• receiving at the computer system the meteorological sensor data from a plurality of monitoring stations communicably linked over a wide area network and placed geographically based on one or more of infrastructure data and natural environmental and man-made regional characteristic data transmitted to the central server and said computer system having program instructions where when said program instructions are executed to perform the steps of:
• initializing real time lateral boundary conditions based on large scale numerical weather forecast data and lower boundary conditions based on climatological geographic data for an earth and atmosphere model domain;
• incorporating data from the plurality of monitoring stations to improve real time lateral and lower boundary conditions of a forecasting model;
• and
• combining model domain boundary conditions and sensor data transformed into a uniform data grid for implementing the forecasting model.

A computer implemented method, comprising the steps of:

• initializing at a computer lateral boundary conditions based on large scale numerical weather forecast data and lower boundary conditions based on climatological geographic data thereby implementing an earth and atmosphere model domain;
• transforming into a uniform data grid sensor data from a local mesonet having a plurality of monitoring stations communicably linked over a wide area network and placed geographically based on infrastructure data and natural environmental and man-made regional characteristic data;
• and
• combining the earth and atmosphere model domain boundary conditions and the sensor data collected from the local mesonet thereby implementing a forecasting model, and combining one or more of static infrastructure data, the natural environment, and the man-made regional characteristic data with the climatological geographic data and the meteorological sensor data to determine a Threat Index value.

A computer implemented method, comprising the steps of:

• initializing at a computer lateral boundary conditions based on large scale numerical weather forecast data and lower boundary conditions based on climatological geographic data thereby implementing an earth and atmosphere model domain;
• transforming into a uniform data grid sensor data from a local mesonet having a plurality of weather monitoring stations and a plurality of Doppler radar monitoring stations communicably linked over a wide area network and placed geographically based on one or more of infrastructure data and natural environmental and man-made regional characteristic data;
• combining the earth and atmosphere model domain boundary conditions and the sensor data collected from the local mesonet thereby implementing a forecasting model;
• inserting a wind radial velocity from the sensor data, and adjusting two other wind components with respect to a continuity equation and some mean quantities;
• retrieving pressure and temperature perturbations;
• refining quality control, editing and analysis techniques thereby providing a more accurate three dimensional wind field recovered from the observed radial velocities and radar reflectivities;
• and
• generating weather prediction data based on the forecasting model and outputting the weather prediction data to a user interface adapted for operating viewing.

A computer implemented method for providing environmentally predictive indicators and related threats, comprising the steps of:

• assembling at a computer system meteorological sensor data from a plurality of Doppler radar monitoring stations and a plurality of weather monitoring stations communicably linked over a wide area network and placed geographically based on one or more of infrastructure data and natural environmental and man-made regional characteristic data and transmitting the meteorological sensor data to a central server having program instructions where when said program instructions are executed are adapted to perform the steps of:
• combining at a computer larger scale numerical weather forecast data with high spatial and high temporal resolution data from the sensor data thereby initializing and creating boundary conditions for a forecast model having higher spatial and temporal correlation factors between observed and predicted weather conditions;
• initializing lateral boundary conditions based on large scale numerical weather forecast data and lower boundary conditions based on climatological geographic data for an earth and atmosphere model domain;
• combining model domain boundary conditions and sensor data transformed into a uniform data grid and implementing a forecasting model;
• and
• generating weather prediction data based on the forecasting model and outputting the weather prediction data to a user interface adapted for operator viewing.

A computer system for predicting weather-related threats, comprising:

• a computer system having a memory and one or more processors;
• one or more processor executable programs stored in the memory and executed by the one or more processors, where the one or more executable programs include:
• instructions for combining at a computer larger scale numerical weather forecast data with high spatial and high temporal resolution data from a local mesonet including a local Doppler radar system and an airborne weather monitoring station, thereby initializing and creating boundary conditions for a forecast model having higher spatial and temporal correlation factors between observed and predicted weather conditions;
• instructions for deriving three dimensional meteorological fields using current observed and predicted meteorological fields including three dimensional wind fields, wind perturbations and temperature perturbations;
• and
• instructions for providing an inversion technique to compute realistic perturbation pressures and perturbation temperature fields, and error magnitudes in the recovered fields which can be used to predict wind field changes and wind loading over a time duration.

A method for forecasting weather-related events comprising the steps of:

• combining at a computer system initial large scale model domain boundary conditions based on large scale national weather data combined with local mesonet data from local mesonet weather sensors and forming a Numerical Forecasting Model parameterized and conditioned based on mesoscale data and local environmental condition data;
• generating at said computer weather prediction data based on the parameterized and conditioned Numerical Forecasting Model;
• and
• displaying the weather prediction data at a user interface, where said weather sensors of the local mesonet include one or more of a stationery weather sensor station, a mobile weather sensor station, a RADAR station, and an un-manned aerial system borne weather sensor station and said weather sensors of the local mesonet are geographically placed based on infrastructure data and regional environmental characteristic data.

A system for forecasting weather-related events comprising:

• a network of meteorological weather sensors including one or more of a stationery weather sensor station, a mobile weather sensor station, a RADAR station, and an un-manned aerial system borne weather sensor station and said meteorological weather sensors are geographically located based on infrastructure data and regional environmental characteristic data and communicably linked over a wide area network to a central server;
• a computer system having a memory and one or more processors;
• and
• one or more processor executable programs stored in the memory and executed by the one or more processors, where the one or more executable programs include:
• instructions for combining initial large scale model domain boundary conditions based on large scale national weather data combined with local mesonet data from the network of meteorological weather sensors and forming a Numerical Forecasting Model parameterized and conditioned based on mesoscale data and local environmental conditions;
• instructions for generating weather prediction data based on the parameterized and conditioned Numerical Forecasting Model;
• and
• instructions for displaying the weather prediction data at a user interface.