Apparatus and method for providing environmental predictive indicators

• US 9,274,251 B2
• Filed: 07/22/2013
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saint Louis University
• Original Assignee: Saint Louis University
• Inventors: Pasken, Robert W., Dannevik, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Phuong
• Application Number:
  US13/947,534
• Publication Number:
  US 20130338920A1
• Time in Patent Office: 953 Days
• Field of Search: 702/3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/00 Meteorology
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 1/10 Devices for predicting weather conditions computers per se G06; display devices G09
• CPC Class Codes: G01W 2001/006 Main server receiving weather information from several sub-stations

Abstract

A method of predicting weather-exacerbated threats, said method comprising inputting localized weather measurement data into a weather threat prediction system; predicting future localized weather conditions based on said localized weather measurement data combined with modeling from National Weather Service Data; inputting natural environment and infrastructure data into said weather threat prediction system; correlating said infrastructure data with said predicted future localized weather conditions; and determining a threat level index over a region, a threat level indicating an area having a certain probabilistic likelihood of being harmed by said future weather conditions.

Claims

1. 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 weather prediction data based on the parameterized and conditioned Numerical Forecasting Model; and

displaying the weather prediction data at a user interface, where said local mesonet weather sensors include one or more of various weather sensors and said local mesonet weather sensors are geographically placed based on one or more of infrastructure data and regional environmental characteristic data.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, where displaying the weather prediction data includes transmitting and displaying graphics data wirelessly and remotely with respect to the computer system to a personal computing device illustrative of the weather prediction data and formatted for displaying on a personal computing device user interface.

3. A system for forecasting weather-related events comprising:

a network of meteorological weather sensors including one or more weather sensors and said meteorological weather sensors are geographically located based on one or more of 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 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 of the computer system.

4. The system as recited in claim 3, where instructions for displaying the weather prediction data includes instructions for transmitting and displaying graphics data wirelessly and remotely with respect to the computer system to a personal computing device illustrative of the weather prediction data and formatted for displaying on a personal computing device user interface.

5. 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 monitoring stations operable to transmit sensor data to said central server and where each of said plurality of 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 the boundary conditions for a EAS model domain, where said initialization module has;

a pre-processing sub-module operable to extract data from a geographic database to define a 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 the data for the LAS model domain,

said computing system further comprising an ingestion module adapted for ingesting initial LAS model domain boundary conditions and combining with Local Mesonet data to get numerical forecasting model by importing the Local Mesonet Data from a Local Mesonet and transformed by a sampling function into a uniform data grid and storing the uniform data grid;

said computing system further comprising a parameterization scheme module adapted for selecting and tuning a parameterization scheme of the numerical forecasting model based at least partially on the Local Mesonet Data; and

said computing system further comprising a Prediction module adapted for generating weather prediction data based on the numerical forecasting model and outputting the weather prediction data to a user interface adapted for operator viewing.

6. The system as recited in claim 5, where the local mesonet network of meteorological weather monitoring stations includes a stationery weather monitoring station mounted on an existing infrastructure.

7. The system as recited in claim 6, where outputting the weather prediction data to a user interface includes outputting the weather prediction data wirelessly to a mobile device formatted for graphically displaying on the user interface of the mobile device.

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

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 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 the 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; 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.

9. The computer system of claim 8, where the instructions for outputting the weather prediction data includes instructions for wirelessly outputting graphical data illustrative of the weather prediction data to a remote mobile personal computing device formatted for displaying on the user interface of the mobile personal computing device.

10. 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;

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 the meteorological 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 where instructions for outputting the weather prediction data includes instructions for transmitting graphical data illustrative of the weather prediction data to a mobile personal computing device formatted for displaying on the user interface of the mobile personal computing device.

11. A computer implemented method for generating weather prediction data, comprising the steps of:

receiving from a central server at a uniform time interval for meteorological sensor data; and

receiving at a 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 data transmitted to the central server, said computer system having program instructions where when said program instructions are executed 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, and incorporating the meteorological sensor data from the plurality of monitoring stations to improve real time lateral and lower boundary conditions of a forecasting model;

combining model domain boundary conditions and the meteorological sensor data transformed into a uniform data grid for implementing the forecasting model;

implementing the forecasting model from combining the model domain boundary conditions and the meteorological sensor data; and

generating the weather prediction data based on the forecasting model.

12. The computer implemented method as recited in claim 11, further comprising the step of;

outputting weather prediction data to a user interface adapted for operator viewing.

13. The computer implemented method as recited in claim 12, where outputting the weather prediction data includes outputting wirelessly to a mobile computing device, the weather prediction data formatted for viewing on the mobile computing device.

14. A computer implemented method for determining a threat index, 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 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 with the climatological geographic data and the sensor data to determine the threat index.