CASA can provide better data to warn the public in case of severe weather threats. We have demonstrated the ability of CASA to safe lives and property. Not only is it important to be able to better detect lower parts of the atmosphere, it is also important that the data can be disseminated in real-time without adding unnecessary latency to the control loop and to the end users (forecasters, emergency managers, public).
Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere is a new paradigm to observe the lower part of the atmosphere to better warn the public of severe weather threats (e.g., tornados, flash floods) with the ultimate goal to save lives and property. This goal is achieved by creating closed-loop networks of small, low-cost radars that scan close to the ground. With these networks, the atmosphere can be scanned in much finer spatial and temporal resolution than with the current, operational radar system. These features enable forecasters to give earlier and more precise warnings in the case of severe weather. The CASA system relies heavily on the Internet to transmit data to and from the sensors. Advanced networking is essential in this case, since the control-loop of the system requires low latency and the radars can transmit data of up to 150 Mbps each.
Acknowledgments: CASA – Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere was funded by an NSF US Ignite grant and the NSF Engineering Research Center Program.
Team Information: University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Massachusetts Amherst – Michael Zink and Brenda Philips
