Functional Testing of Surface Weather Instruments and Systems

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Functional Testing of Surface Weather
Instruments and Systems

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Rodica Nitu Meteorological Service of Canada
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Summary

• Principles
• Test facilities
• Current projects

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Quality Meteorological Data

• performance of measurement of the instruments
  (accuracy, resolution, response time, etc)
• variability of measurement within a network
• changes in the data sets when using sensors with
  different operating principles to measure the
  same weather element
• how well a sensor operates in the specific
  environmental and climatological conditions,
  across the network?

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Functional testing

• The testing in the outdoor, natural environment
  where instruments are expected to operate over a
  wide variety of meteorological conditions and
  climatic regimes. (WMO, Guide8)
• Goals
• Data quality
• System reliability

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Challenges

• Canadian territory vast size
• Canadian climate variable and diverse
• Meteorological equipment rarely approaches a
  commodity definition.

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Challenges

• Monitoring programs are major capital
  expenditures and the procurement decisions
  require sound information.
• Purchases take place within the Government of
  Canada procurement system which is highly
  structured, process-bound.

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Canadian Weather Monitoring Networks

• In Canada the meteorological sensors and systems
  operate in a set of observing networks organized
  according to the primary purpose of the data
  collected
• Public weather,
• Aviation,
• Reference climate,
• Marine,
• Upper air.

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Reference Climate Network
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Canadian Marine Weather Network
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Testing Program

• Fulfills two critical functions
• determining the best mix of instruments and
  methods of observation that will meet data
  quality needs with optimal cost/performance
  ratios.
• developing the knowledge base needed to support
  an effective life cycle management program
  identifying and managing potential risks.

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MSC Test Sites

• St. Johns, Newfoundland heavy precipitation,
  high wind speeds, fog, and freezing rain.
• Iqaluit, Nunavut arctic conditions such as
  extreme cold, ice crystals.
• Egbert, Ontario continental climate regime.
• Wiarton, Ontario heavy snowfall conditions.
• Bratts Lake, Saskatchewan continental climate.
• Stony Plain, Alberta operational testing of
  upper air systems and radiosondes.
• Burlington, Ontario testing marine weather
  instruments

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St. Johns Newfoundland

• Site of the 1994 WMo intercomparisons of present
  weather sensors.
• very active weather
• ideal conditions for testing the performance and
  the performance limits of any meteorological
  instrument
• fog
• freezing rainstorms.

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• After the freezing rainstorm
• St. Johns, February 2005

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Iqaluit, Nunavut

• Established in 2004
• South-eastern arctic, on Baffin Island.
• Strong arctic storms with harsh temperatures,
  strong winds, heavy precipitation, blowing snow,
  low visibility, freezing rain.
• Has potential to become a base for major research
  projects.
• 2007-2008 Storm Studies in the Arctic project.

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Iqaluit 2004
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Current Projects

• reference climate and surface weather networks
  wind, pressure, temperature, and humidity
  sensors
• marine weather network wind and pressure
  sensors
• evaluation of automated systems for Nav Canada
  and Department of Defense.
• development of an algorithm for deriving snowfall
  amount data from snow depth measurements.

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Summary

• Meteorological Service of Canada functional
  testing program
• A quality management system
• Data quality
• System reliability
• Pragmatic approach to managing users
  expectations.

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Questions?