Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere: End User and Social

Integration

2009 American Meteorological Association Summer Community Meeting

Walter Díaz, UPRM; Havidán Rodríguez, UDEL; Bill Donner, UDEL; Jenniffer Santos, UDEL; Brenda Phillips, UMASS; Kevin Kloesel, OU; Joe Trainor, UDEL; Ellen Bass, UVA

Background

New technology is the solution!

Background

But, what was the problem??

CASA addresses a new sensing paradigm

10,000 ft

tornadowind

earth surface

snow

3.05

km

0 40 80 120 160 200 240RANGE (km)

5.4

km

1 km 2

km

4 km

Current paradigm: large, Long range radars

10,000 ft

tornado

wind

earth surface

snow

3.05

km

3.05

km

0 40 80 120 160 200 240RANGE (km)

CASA’s dense networks of small radars

• Dense networks of X-band radars

• Low level, overlapping coverage

• Flexible architecture

• Rapid, “smart” scans – balance competing user needs for

data– adapt to changing weather– RHIs, PPIs, dual Doppler, sector

scans

Goal:

To provide users the information they need when they need it .

Background“To be made useful, scientific research must be integrated with the needs of people seeking to address problems or opportunities they face.”

Pielke and Pielke, 1997

A multidisciplinary effort integrating engineering and the physical and social sciences is necessary if we are to leverage improved meteorological knowledge and forecasting in order to enhance mitigation and reduce societal vulnerability.

What is a disaster?

…disasters are about human populations, how their lives and activities are imperiled or changed, how they react to crises, the attitudes they hold, the adjustments they make and how they confront the everyday problems of risk and vulnerability“

Curson (1989)

Background

Objectives of the End User groupDetermine how improved forecasting will reduce the exposure and vulnerability of individuals and property to every-day and extreme climatological events and how it contributes to enhancing mitigation, preparedness, and response behavior.

Establish networks with government and non-governmental agencies, industries, and communities to carryout research to determine their knowledge, attitudes, needs, and utilization of weather and forecasting information.

Determine how improved weather observation and forecasting will impact organizational decision making

Generate a demographic and socioeconomic profile of end-users (e.g, individual and organizational level of analysis) and relate to aforementioned objectives.

Why?1. To improve the science by identifying additional limitations and gaps in current technology and knowledge.

2. To develop better products that are more useful to society. Ultimately, users pay for information because it impacts their decision making. What decisions are currently made? To what degree are they a function of current observing technology and products? How will this change? What new or modified products do end users want? How do they want or need them delivered?

3. To improve and demonstrate accountability by improving our ability to collect information on how new technology and products result (hopefully) in improved decision making and behavior.

Public Sector (NWS, FEMA, emergency

managers, etc.)

Private Sector (Insurance, Media,

Transportation, etc.)

General Public

Science/Technology Development:

NETRAD

End-User Integration Research Group

End-user Integration Model

Public Sector (NWS, FEMA, emergency

managers, etc.)

Private Sector (Insurance,

Media, Transportation,

etc.)

General Public

End-User Integration

Research Group

Experiments

SurveysQuick Response

Research Methodology

Integrating Data andInformation from the

Puerto Rico and OklahomaTestbeds

G.I.S.G.I.S.

Ongoing Research Efforts

NOAA Experimental Warning Program in Hazardous Weather

Test bed

Assessment Error

CASA reduces wind assessment error by 30 %

Emergency Manager Research- Over 50 in-depth interviews with emergency managers in OK.- Post Event Survey including EMs across the US. Emphasis on test bed events but also includes all jurisdictions surveyed by the Public Response Survey.- Seeks to obtain data on current usage of weather information for EM decision making and how CASA data may change this.

Reasons EMs Deploy Spotters During Warning Phase

Public Response Survey

Explore public response and the household decision making process following a severe weather warning or a hazard event

Using Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) to carry out interviews with residents of areas affected by tornadoes. Current n=600 across OK, MN, KS, MS, AL and CO.

Develop quantitative and predictive models of public response to tornado events and warning.