Comparison of PAM (Portable Automated Mesonet)-II and FLOWS (FAA (Federal Aviation Administration)-Lincoln Laboratory Operational Weather Studies) Mesonet Data during COHMEX (Cooperative Huntsville Meteorological Experiment)

摘要

Surface weather stations are being used in the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar program to assess the radar detectability of wind shear and to help gain an understanding of microburst forcing mechanisms. During 1986, surface station networks operated by Lincoln Laboratory (FLOWS) and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (PAM-II) were deployed in the Huntsville, AL area. A preliminary assessment of the overall performance of PAM-II and FLOWS networks suggests that they performed with comparable accuracy for those meteorological characteristics most important to the detection of microbursts. While differences and discrepancies were noted, especially in the network total precipitation amounts, none would preclude treating PAM-II and FLOWS data together as if they were generated by a single network. We conclude that the data can be directly combined for microburst detection analyses.