Page 1 MDE Profiler Ft. Meade, Maryland MARAMA Monitoring and Profiler Meeting October 24, 2001 Atlantic Sands Hotel - Rehoboth Beach, DE Maryland Department of the Environment

Page 2 Profiler Background LAP-3000 (Lower Atmospheric Profiler) and RASS (Radio Acoustic Sounding System) Installed in June 1998, operating ever since Located at Ft. Meade (half-way between Baltimore and Washington, DC Maintained by MDE

Page 3 Operating Parameters LAP Pulsed Doppler Radar measures wind speed and wind direction using microwaves and the Doppler Effect LAP measures for 25 minutes, twice per hour, 24 hours per day. LAP has two simultaneous modes: –High resolution, every 60m up to 1.5km –Low resolution, every 160m up to 4km RASS measures Virtual Temperature using relationship of speed of sound to air temperature RASS measures for 5 minutes, twice per hour, 18 hours per day prior to August 7, 2000; edited radarntt.par file to 24 hours per day since August 7, RASS range of 1km

Page 4 Radar.par File

Page 5 Data Logging and Availability Each morning the previous day’s data is automatically downloaded from the profiler site to a dedicated PC at MDE via ProComm Plus. The data is QA/QC and copied to an MDE server. The QA/QC process consists of checking the file sizes. Data is displayed using LAPGraph Version Data is only posted internally at MDE. UMCP, PSU, and NOAA have direct dial-up access

Page 6 Data Archive FMEYMMDD.T1A FMEYMMDD.W1A FMEYMMDD.W4A DYYJJJA.LOG DYYJJJA.MOM HYYJJJA.MOM TYYJJJ.CNS WYYJJJ.CNS Key FME = Ft. Meade Y = Year M = Month D = Day J = Julian Day

Page 7 Ongoing Research Interests Low level jet (LLJ) research Ozone forecasting (checking the current situation) Ozone episode analysis

Page 8 Hardware and Software Support Cost of hardware support –$25K annual service support contract –Current contract good through 9/30/02 –Support consists of phone assistance –Only hardware service was for an amplifier, but at the time service contract had expired Cost of software support –$10K Y2K fix –Right now no money allocated in the budget for profiler software upgrades

Page 9 Contacts at Vaisala Service Contract with Vaisala Meteorological Systems, Inc. (303) Radian International, L.L.C. acquired by Meteorological Systems Company, Inc. (MSCI) MSCI subsequently renamed as Vaisala. Contractual POC: Dan Donahue Woburn, MA (781) Operations Manager: Gary Zeigler Boulder, CO (303) Technical Contacts –John Newschafer(303) –Kevin Hall(303) –George Frederick (PM) (512)

Page 10 Contacts at MDE Earl Blue (410) Fran Pluciennik (410) Matthew Seybold (410) Michael Woodman (410) NOAA Leon Benjamin (303) UMCP Charles Piety(301) PSU Bill Ryan( 814) Others with Direct Dialup Access

Page 11 Discussion Great tool but will be better when used in conjunction with open access to other profiler sites. Compare MDE’s profiler parameter setup file with other profiler sites (radar.par) –Currently using the profiler default setup created at the time of installation by Radian

Page 12 Discussion (continued) To get the most use out of the profiler –Training? At MDE no money in budget to update profiler software –Any grant money available? How to make data more accessible to all –Secure FTP Site?