The National Mesonet Program Will Provide New Sources of Data that Profile the Lower Atmosphere for the National Weather Service to Improve Forecasts and Warnings

GREENBELT, Md., Oct. 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 6, 2015, Global Science & Technology, Inc. (GST) was awarded the contract to operate and expand the National Mesonet Program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS). The contract has a value of $9,836,764 over an 8-month period of performance, beginning September 28, 2015, plus an option of 4 months for a total value of $14,815,416.

GST and its alliance of 32 universities and private weather companies, known collectively as National Mesonet Program Alliance (NMPA), leverage existing non-federal environmental observation networks to supply hydrometeorological data to improve NWS prediction of local weather, including high-impact storms (hurricanes, winter storms, floods, severe thunderstorms, and tornadoes).

This contract expands the geographic coverage for different types of mesonets. The NMPA is growing with new partners, particularly in the Plains states and Deep South. All NMPA mesonets are in geographic areas needed to serve the Weather Ready Nation mission of NOAA for the prediction of high-impact storms. There are surface mesonet observing networks, which are mostly non-federal automated weather stations that record temperature, wind, moisture, pressure, and precipitation at the surface, as well as observations of soil temperature and soil moisture, solar radiation, and road-surface temperature. Mobile platforms provide additional weather observation coverage along their transit routes between fixed stations. Vertical profilers, such as radiometers, provide temperature, wind, and/or moisture information at 68 locations.

GST is pleased to announce two new sources of mesnet data that will greatly improve the vertical profiling component of the National Mesonet Program. GST plans to introduce aircraft observations from regional air carriers and moisture information from Global Positioning Satellites (GPS).

"We are pleased to announce that the National Mesonet can deliver aircraft observations of the lower atmosphere from regional air carriers," said GST President Chieh-san Cheng. "The NMPA already delivers lower-atmospheric data from fixed-site vertical profilers. Panasonic will provide aircraft observations of moisture, wind, and temperature (known as TAMDAR), which will be a tremendous boost to the NOAA modelers who need these types of data inputs for better data assimilation into NOAA's models."

The second new source of vertical moisture information comes from the ability to deduce the amount of liquid water in a vertical column overhead by the atmospheric refraction of GPS signal. During the past year, NMPA partner Earth Networks commercialized what is known as GPS-MET. According to GST National Mesonet Program (NMP) Manager Paul Heppner, "Earth Networks can deliver GPS-MET to NOAA during our new contract period. There are hundreds of ground stations that receive GPS signal, which can then be interpreted to deduce the liquid water content above them. NOAA's modelers will be able to parse and infuse GPS-MET data into their operational models. The provision of GPS-MET data underscores the creativity and innovation in the sciences to extract atmospheric data from an ordinary communication signal."

According to Curtis Marshall, NOAA's National Mesonet program manager, "The addition of several new networks and sources of data, particularly TAMDAR and GPS-Met, continues to push the National Mesonet Program in a direction consistent with the National Academy of Science's 'From the Ground Up, Network of Networks' vision, by providing a broad range of non-federal data that enhances NWS's Weather Ready Nation goals, from improved situational awareness in NWS's local forecast offices, to NCEP's high-resolution hydrometeorological modeling capabilities. We are now in a period of pivotal growth of mesonet data."

For more information, contact Paul Heppner, NMP Program Manager, at [email protected] or 856-465-6834.

Global Science & Technology, Inc. (http://www.gst.com/) is a pioneering, high technology science company that has supported NOAA domestically and internationally for more than 16 years. Our mission is to apply our expertise toward solving the challenges fundamental to advanced science- and technology-based enterprises for federal, state, and local governments; commercial companies; and international organizations. ©2015 GST, Inc. All rights reserved.

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SOURCE Global Science & Technology, Inc.

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