An Internet-OF-Things Platform for Digital Weather Service: From Measurement to Information Delivery

Abstract:

How to speedily provide accurate weather information to users in a digital era is in public and industry interests. For example, a driver who needs to drive from west coast to eat coast to deliver COVID-19 treatment goods, within limited time and constrained budget, needs to know the road weather conditions, an information not provided by National Weather Information Service (NWS) but critical for his road safety and optimum schedule. He may also want to know the COVID-19 confirmed numbers of each county he goes through so that he can wisely decide where to fill gas, have lunch, and rest at night. How can he access such information and how can he understand the uncertainties of such information? In Our R&D, we apply Internet-of-Things technology to integrate weather forecast, ground observations, satellite remote sensing, bridge and road conditions, and Geohealth information in a user friendly platform to access the integrated weather and health information across any highway in US, 24/7, in 5 seconds. Cloud computing, online database, online visualization and historical and current news record search are used together. Furthermore, a new spectral imaging technology is under development to identify the road conditions in order to enhance measurements.