ALL MET SENSORS

Location: Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps

The CLACE 4 project (Cloud and Aerosol Characterisation Experiment in the Free Troposphere), held during the wintertime at the Jungfraujoch High Alpine Research Station, studies the interaction of aerosol particles with ice clouds. A Biral HSS VPF-730 Present Weather Sensor is used to detect the presence of cloud and precipitation. (A Metek heated ultrasonic anemometer is also used for 3D wind speed, wind direction and sonic temperature measurements).

NB Out of all of the met instruments at the High Alpine Research Station the VPF-730 present weather sensor was one of only two met instruments which kept working during a period of very severe weather in 2006.  

Please click on CLACE 4  for more details and web links.

Location: Holme Moss, West Yorkshire, UK

Samples of rain and cloud water are collected from the site for analysis. An Automatic Weather Station and Present Weather Sensor (Biral HSS VPF-730) were used to provide wind speed and direction, temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, rain amount, cloud amount, precipitation type, visibility and cloud and haze presence.

Website: http://cloudbase.phy.umist.ac.uk/field/holme.htm

Photos at: http://cloudbase.phy.umist.ac.uk/people/longley/hm_pictures.htm

Location: Andes

As part of the PREDICT project to understand the precise amount of precipitation in the tropical mountain forests of the Andes a BIRAL VPF-730 forwardscatter meter was used to measure the atmospheric extinction and horizontal visibility, rain rate, particle number, droplet spectra and rain type.

Also deployed was a NES210 Eigenbrodt Fog Collector to evaluate the characteristics of six manual quadratic polypropylene mesh collectors. In a field campaign from December 2001 to April 2003 additional measurements of vertical rainfall profiles were performed with the METEK Micro Rain Radar.

Article:
Variability of precipitation in the Reserva Biólogica San Francisco / Southern Ecuador www.lyonia.org/viewArticle.php?articleID=407

Location: New York area including BNL/NCAR Ceiling & Visibility site,
              Long Island, USA

As part of the Aviation Weather Research Program (AWRP) (which won FAA’s Excellence in Aviation Award, and the National Weather Association's “2002 Aviation Meteorology Award.” ) the Fog Physics and Prediction project is aimed at better understanding the processes determining the life cycle and variability of low visibility (fog) events.

The Ceiling and Visibility site on Long Island is one of the observational sites for characterisation of fog and low visibility environments and is equipped with a 90 m tower which has 7 levels of temperature, humidity and wind sensors. Three Biral HSS visibility and present weather sensors are mounted at 4 m, 32 m and 70 m. (Metek USA-1 ultrasonic anemometers are also mounted at 32 m and 70 m.)

Main research page: http://www.rap.ucar.edu/staff/tardif/research.htm

Field study page: http://www.rap.ucar.edu/staff/tardif/fog/field_study.htm

Instrumentation page: BNL/NCAR Ceiling and Visibility website  

Published Paper:

First observations of fog and low ceiling environments at the FAA Northeast Ceiling and Visibility field site (pdf 427 kb)

Location: Marshall, Colorado, USA

The Biral VPF-730 Visibility and Present Weather sensor is one of the 14 precipitation gauges at the Research Applications Laboratory on the Marshall Field Site which has been collecting precipitation data since 1994. The Marshall Field website below has photos, data and plots and event summarises from 1994 onwards.

Website: http://www.rap.ucar.edu/projects/marshall/

VPF-730 photo: http://www.rap.ucar.edu/projects/marshall/Instruments/HSS.html

Project: Various projects

Location: Laboratory for Climatology and Remote Sensing
               (LCRS)

Website: http://lcrs.geographie.uni-marburg.de/

Research overview:
               http://lcrs.geographie.uni-marburg.de/index.php?id=28

(The LCRS's meteorological equipment includes the Metek Micro Rain Radar, the Metek USA-1 ultrasonic anemometer and the Biral VPF-730 present weather sensor - to see all equipment at LCRS visit their facilities page at http://lcrs.geographie.uni-marburg.de/index.php?id=45)

Location: Minnesota, USA

The HSS VPF-710 Visibility sensor was used in a two-year research on visibility measurements based on video cameras and image processing on the Thompson Hill site located near Spirit Mountain along Interstate highway I-35 northbound, Duluth, Minnesota

Location: Field campaign in Southern Morocco

The HSS VPF-710 Visibility sensor was used to measure visibility and ambient extinction in research into Hygroscopicity and Optical Properties of Dust Particles in a mineral dust in southern Morocco.

Website: http://www.tropos.de/samum/scope.html and Poster

Location: North Sea

Biral HSS visibility sensors are used as part of the Dutch North Sea Monitoring stations. The North Sea network consists of six off-shore platforms, several fixed buoys and two on-shore locations. The positions of the stations are along the Eurogeul (channel to the port of Rotterdam) and in the north-west direction from the Netherlands.

Website: http://www.ihe.nl/we/dicea/monitor/default.htm?/we/dicea/monitor/holland.htm

Location: Interstate 215 south of Salt Lake City, USA

Related pdfs:

http://www.trafficlab.utah.edu/documents/ADVISEpub.pdf (2 pages)

Testing the ADVISE – Safer Driving in Fog (02-3140) (pdf) (16 pages)

Utah's Fog Warning System - "ADVISE" (pdf) (2 pages)

Location: Otis Weather Test Facility (WTF), USA (for OC Tests in 2003-2004)

In a formal Operational Capabilities Test (OCT) Plan (held at WTF) to which the sensors have to comply, a High-Visibility Forward Scattermeter (HVFS - HSS Model VR-301B) which was not under test was used for periodic alignment checks and automatic calibration of the WTF transmissometers.   In addition an HSS present weather sensor (Model PW-402B) was used to classify precipitation by detecting individual precipitation particles.

Report: FAA Test Methods for Runway Visual Range Visibility and Ambient Light Sensors

Biral are the manufacturers of the HSS visibility and present weather sensors.