User:Bvolsen

Welcome to Brian Olsen's Wikipage

As a graduate student at the University of Utah (homepage), I'm working towards an M.S. degree in Meteorology for Fall 2007.

For the past many years, I have been working with others to develop MesoWest, a cooperative of privately and publicly owned mesonets. The Wikispace for MesoWest is can be found at http://mesowest.wikispaces.com.

What constitutes a good article?

The cop-out answer is to look at the What is a good article? page. But, to show that I actually read it, I'll summarize below.

A good article has the following attributes:
 * It is well-written, meaning that grammar and spelling are correct. The structure is logical, meaning there is a good introduction followed by topics that relate to the subject in a logical way.  It also adheres to the guidelines set out in several Wikipedia guides for good article writing.
 * It is factually accurate and verifiable, meaning it contains many citations and sources of peer-reviewed literature, and does not cite any personal research.
 * It is broad in its coverage, meaning it addresses all major aspects of the subject without going into unnecessary detail on off-topic items.
 * It follows the neutral point of view policy, representing the topic without bias and fairly aknowledging all significant points of view on the subject.
 * It is stable, meaning that the information does not change on a day-to-day basis and is not prone to edit wars.
 * It contains selected images that clearly illustrate the topic.

My Wiki project

In meteorology, a mesonet is a network of automated weather stations designed to observe mesoscale meteorological phenomena. Dry lines, squall lines, and sea breezes are examples of phenomena that can be observed by mesonets. Due to the space and time scales associated with mesoscale phenomena, weather stations comprising a mesonet will be spaced closer together and report more frequently than synoptic scale observing networks, such as ASOS. The term mesonet refers to the collective group of these weather stations, and are typically owned and operated by a common entity.

The distinguishing features that classify a network of weather stations as a mesonet are station density and temporal resolution. Depending upon the phenomena meant to be observed, mesonet stations will have a spatial spacing of 2 to 40 km and report conditions every 1 to 15 minutes.

Why mesonets?
Thunderstorms, squall lines, dry lines, and other mesoscale phenomena can cause weather conditions in a localized area to be significantly different from that dictated by the ambient large-scale condition. As such, meteorologists need to understand these phenomena in order to improve forecast skill. Observations are critical to understanding the processes by which these phenomena form, evolve, and dissipate.

The long-term observing networks (ASOS,AWOS,COOP), however, are too sparse and report too infrequently for mesoscale research. ASOS and AWOS stations are typically spaced 50 to 100 km apart and report only hourly on most occasions. The Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) database consists of only daily reports. 'Mesoscale' weather phenomena occur on spatial scales of tens to hundreds of kilometers and temporal (time) scales of hours. Thus, an observing network with finer temporal and spatial scales is neede for mesoscale research. This need led to the development of the mesonet.

How do mesonets work?
Mesonets were born out of the need to conduct mesoscale research. The nature of this research is such that mesonets, like the phenomena they are meant to observe, are short-lived. Long term research projects and non-research groups, however, have been able to maintain a mesonet for many years. For example, the US Army Dugway Proving Ground in Utah has maintained a mesonet for many decades. The research-based origin of mesonets has lead to the characteristic that mesonet stations tend to be modular and portable, able to me moved from one field program to another.

Whether the mesonet is temporary or semi-permanent, each weather station is typically independent, drawing power from a battery and solar panels. An on-board computer takes readings from several instruments measuring temperature, humidity, wind, and atmospheric pressure (or any other enviromnental variable deemed important to the mission of the mesonet). The computer periodically saves these data to memory and transmits the observations to a base station via radio, telephone, or satellite transmission. Advancements in computer technology and wireless communications in recent decades has made possible the collection of mesonet data in real-time. The availability of mesonet data in real-time can be extremely valuable to operational forecasters as they can monitor weather conditions from many points in their forecast area.

History
Early mesonets operated differently than modern mesonets. Each constituent instrument of the weather station was purely mechanical and fairly independent of the other sensors. Data was recorded continuously by an inked stylus that pivoted about a point onto a rotating drum covered by a sheath of graphed paper called a trace chart, much like a traditional seismograph station. Data analysis could occur only after the trace charts from the various instruments were collected.

One of the earliest mesonets operated in the summer of 1946 and 1947 and was part of a field campaign called The Thunderstorm Project. As the name implies, the objective of this program was to better understand thunderstorm convection.

Examples
The following table is a list of mesonets that have operated in the past and present.