Meteorological Information Service Research Articles

Contribution to the building of a weather information service for solar panel cleaning operations at Diass plant (Senegal, Western Sahel)

Abstract The accumulation of dust on the surface of solar panels reduces the amount of sunlight reaching the solar cells and results in a decrease in panel performance. To avoid this loss of production and thus, to improve the performance capacity, solar panels must be cleaned frequently. The West African region is well known for its high solar energy potential. However, this potential can be reduced by the high occurrence of dust storms during the year. This article aims to provide a contribution to the construction of a meteorological information service for solar panel cleaning operations at Diass solar plant in Senegal (Western Sahel). It is based on a full year in situ experiment comparing the power loss due to dust between solar panels cleaned at different frequencies and those not cleaned. The model to determine the cleaning frequencies is based on the deposition rate of airborne particles, the concentration of airborne particles, and the density of the dust that has a major impact on the power loss. Cleaning frequencies are presented at seasonal scale because in the study area, dust episodes differ according to the seasons. A cost–benefit analysis is also performed to demonstrate the advantage of using weather information service to support the dust cleaning operations at Diass plant. As results, it is found that cleaning every 3 weeks is required during the dry seasons, December–January–February and March–April–May. During the rainy season, cleaning every 5 weeks is recommended in June–July–August, while in September–October–November cleaning every 4 weeks is sufficient to maintain an optimal performance of the solar panel. The total costs of cleaning operations based on these results are reduced compared to the current costs of cleaning and the benefits are much higher than without cleaning action.

Quality Management System for an IoT Meteorological Sensor Network—Application to Smart Seoul Data of Things (S-DoT)

Meteorological data with a high horizontal resolution are essential for user-specific weather application services, such as flash floods, heat waves, strong winds, and road ice, in urban areas. National meteorological observation networks, such as the Automated Synoptic Observing System (ASOS) and Automated Weather System (AWS), provide accurate but low horizontal resolution data to address urban-scale weather phenomena. Many megacities are constructing their own Internet of Things (IoT) sensor networks to overcome this limitation. This study investigated the status of the smart Seoul data of things (S-DoT) network and the spatial distribution of temperature on heatwave and coldwave event days. The temperature at above 90% of S-DoT stations was higher than that at the ASOS station, mainly because of different surface covers and surrounding local climate zones. A quality management system for an S-DoT meteorological sensor network (QMS-SDM) comprising pre-processing, basic quality control, extended quality control, and data reconstruction using spatial gap-filling was developed. The upper threshold temperatures for the climate range test were set higher than those adopted by the ASOS. A 10-digit flag for each data point was defined to discriminate between normal, doubtful, and erroneous data. Missing data at a single station were imputed using the Stineman method, and the data with spatial outliers were filled with values at three stations within 2 km. Using QMS-SDM, irregular and diverse data formats were changed to regular and unit-format data. QMS-SDM application increased the amount of available data by 20-30%, and significantly improved data availability for urban meteorological information services.

Variation in the Positioning of the Asian Summer Monsoon Boundary in the Tibetan Plateau and Potential Drivers

Studying the variation in the boundary position of the Asian summer monsoon in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) region and its potential drivers is important for understanding the climate in this region. Three sets of mean monthly precipitation data from 1980 to 2019 were sourced from the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre, the Climate Research Unit, and China Meteorological Information Service Centre. Several indicators that represent the Asian summer monsoon boundary (ASMB) were selected to compare their applicability to the TP region and elucidate the changes in the location of the ASMB in the TP over the last four decades. The results showed that the ASMB in the TP region extends in a southwest-northeast direction, with a clear north-south variation. It reaches as far north as the Kunlun Mountains and as far south as the Himalayas. The largest amplitude in spatial fluctuation occurs in the middle of the TP, and the smallest amplitude occurs at both ends of the region. A “small-large-small” fluctuation pattern was observed from west to east. The water vapor mainly originates from the South Asian region. The South Asian summer monsoon can move the ASMB position northward, whereas the westerly wind moves the ASMB position southward. Variation in the ASMB in the TP region is closely associated with the South Asian monsoon and westerly wind.

Economic Assessment of Meteorological Information Services for Aquaculture in Taiwan

The main purpose of this research was to evaluate and analyze the economic value of the meteorological information services (MIS) provided by the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) when applied to aquaculture in Taiwan. In this research, a contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to inquire about the subjective rating given to the CWB’s meteorological information services based on the responses to a national level questionnaire distributed among aquaculture farmers. The subjective rating revealed how the aquaculture farmers rated the accuracy of the MIS provided by the CWB and how they recognized the impact of the MIS on their aquaculture output. On this basis, this research determined the economic value brought about by the application of the meteorological information services. In order to understand the main factors affecting the respondents’ willingness-to-pay (WTP) for the MIS, this research also conducted an empirical estimation of the bid function. The results indicated that the main factors affecting the WTP were found to include the respondents’ subjective rating of the meteorological information services (including the accuracy rating and the effect rating), traditional social and economic background variables such as income and education level, as well as fish species. In addition, through testing the estimation of the bid function, it was also found that the survey sample used in this research had a significant starting point bias effect, which needed to be corrected using econometric methods. According to the empirical results, the median willingness-to-pay (WTP) of aquaculture farmers in Taiwan was 3544 New Taiwan Dollars (NTD)/person/year and the total economic value at the national level ranged from 157 million to 209 million NTD per year. Since the MIS service users have often lacked sufficient knowledge and ability to interpret the weather forecasts, how to strengthen the capabilities of service users in using MIS through the promotion of training programs and improve the value of the MIS may be an important policy insight.

OPTIMALISASI PELAYANAN INFORMASI METEOROLOGI DI STASIUN METEOROLOGI TANJUNGPINANG BERBASIS WEB

With the existence of information technology, a company or organization can improve it’s business processes or improve it’s performance, one of which is at the Tanjungpinang Meteorological Station.
 
 This research was conducted to improve services and provide satisfaction to service users of MKuG (Meteorology, Climatology, Air Quality and Geophysics), especially the public by providing fast, precise, accurate and easily understood services by creating a web application at the Tanjungpinang Meteorological Station, where meteorological information services are obtained by the public. So far, by coming directly to the Tanjungpinang Meteorological Station office including Flight Document services (weather data during the flight) for each airline served by the airline's FO (Front Office) officers coming directly to take data to the Tanjungpinang Meteorological Station office, this is in addition to long and slow service and inefficient in the use of paper and ink at the Tanjungpinang Meteorological Station.
 
 Optimization of web-based meteorological information services at the Tanjungpinang Meteorological Station using the Sublime Text Editor as a tool used to build web applications, WAMP Server to run local servers, and using the HTML, CSS, PHP programming languages.

Mobile-based advisory services for sustainable agriculture: Assessing farmers’ information behavior

Mobile-based advisory services have significant benefits, including access to agricultural information, knowledge sharing, meteorological information, marketing-related information, and financial services for smallholder farmers. This study aimed to assess farmers’ information behavior regarding mobile-based advisory services and how farmers with different characteristics and attitudes access and adopt information. Data were collected from 382 farmers in Dakhalia governorate, Egypt. The most frequently received information was related to best agricultural practices, weather forecasts, seed varieties and treatment, and water management. Cluster analysis revealed that 47% of the farmers had low information behavior. Seventy-one of the respondents had a favorable attitude toward information retrieval from mobile agricultural services. The information behavior groups of the farmers significantly differed in education, farm size, diversity of agricultural production, and attitude regarding trust and quality of the information provided. Information behavior among farmers has useful implications for policymakers in supporting the long-term benefits of mobile-based advisory services.

Economic Valuation of Agricultural producers’ WTP for the weather information service – A Case Study in Central Vietnam

Most meteorological information services in Vietnam in general and in Central Vietnam to be specific are currently provided by the Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change (IMHEN). This agency is responsible for researching and collecting meteorological information in all regions of the country, public and transfer the information via Vietnam Television, Weather Forecast News. As agricultural production activities are sensitive to weather and climate conditions, meteorological information services are more important for agricultural decision-makers than those in other sectors. This study uses the contingent valuation method to estimate the economic value of meteorological information services in Central Vietnam for agricultural producers. We assess the agricultural producers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the meteorological information services, conducting a national face-to-face survey of 450 agricultural households in 16 communes in 4 Provinces in Central Vietnam. The results show the adjusted WTP for every agricultural household each year with a 95% confidence interval which ranges from 56.06 US dollars to 90.92 US dollars. The inferred annual economic value of meteorological information services for agricultural producers in the study site is between 28.06 million US dollars and 45.51 million US dollars. Moreover, the agricultural producers’ subjective assessment of weather forecast accuracy, farm size, and first bid price significantly affect the amount agricultural producers are willing to pay for meteorological information services.

Economic Valuation of Public Meteorological Information Services—A Case Study of Agricultural Producers in Taiwan

Most meteorological information services in Taiwan are currently provided by the Central Weather Bureau, Ministry of Transportation and Communications. As agricultural production activities are sensitive to weather and climate conditions, meteorological information services are more important for agricultural decision-makers than those in other sectors. This study uses the contingent valuation method to estimate the economic value of meteorological information services in Taiwan for agricultural producers. We assess the agricultural producers’ willingness to pay (WTP) for the meteorological information services, conducting a national face-to-face survey of 400 registered farmers in 20 municipalities in Taiwan in 2013. The results show the adjusted WTP for every agricultural household each year with a 95% confidence interval which ranges from 56.06 US dollars to 90.92 US dollars. The inferred annual economic value of meteorological information services for agricultural producers in Taiwan is between 28.06 million US dollars and 45.51 million US dollars. Moreover, the agricultural producers’ subjective assessment of weather forecast accuracy, farm size, and first bid price significantly affect the amount agricultural producers are willing to pay for meteorological information services.

Barriers and requirements to climate change adaptation of mountainous rural communities in developing countries: The case of the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of China

Systematically identifying the barriers and requirements to adaptation is critical to the successful implementation of climate adaptation planning and policies at the local level, especially in the mountainous rural communities of developing countries with limited resources and technology. We conducted an empirical study of the barriers and requirements to adapting to climate change of 539 peasant households in an ecologically vulnerable area of China to enhance their resilience to climate change by improving our understanding of adaptation process and decision-making. Our findings indicated that farmers in the Gannan Plateau face multiple adaptation barriers, of which normative, information and technology barriers were more serious, such as lack of meteorological information service, infrastructure and technology extension in agriculture or animal husbandry. Adaptation requirements are an important way to effectively reduce or eliminate obstacles and improve farmers' adaptive capacity to climate change. The survey found that local households have an urgent requirement for infrastructure, information and production technologies, such as water, electricity, transportation facilities, disaster warning information, employment information and farming or breeding techniques. In addition, due to the influence of economic level, education level, years of farming, gender and other factors, differences exist in the adaptation barriers and requirements faced by farmers in different regions. These findings extend empirical evidence in favor of formulating a reasonable adaptation framework and choosing optimal adaptation strategies, which are essential for enacting well-targeted regional adaptation policies.

Economic Assessment of Meteorological Information Services for Livestock Farmers: A Case Study in Taiwan

This research uses the contingent valuation method to evaluate the economic benefits of the meteorological information services provided by the Central Weather Bureau for livestock farming in Taiwan. The results show that the subjective rating of the accuracy of information services dominates the willingness to pay. After correcting the possible bias, the annual total economic value of meteorological information services of livestock farmers in Taiwan is about 120.75 million NTD~135.97 million NTD.

Research on Meteorological Information Transmission Mechanism in the Age of All Media

This paper takes the Fujian Meteorological Service Center as the research objective, and uses the methods of departmental data sharing and network search to study the dissemination mechanism of meteorological information in the whole media era. The result shows that it is of great significance to actively adapt to the characteristics of information dissemination in the all-media era, establish and improve meteorological information service rules and supervision mechanisms, actively explore strong measures to strengthen the monitoring of meteorological services, promptly release authoritative voices, curb the breeding of rumors, regulate the propagation path, and conduct meteorological information dissemination assessment. Finally, this paper proposes the construction of meteorological information dissemination mechanism from five aspects: service quality assessment, introduction of enterprise information filing and credit management system, establishment of authoritative meteorological information sharing channels, formulation of emergency response plans, and vigorous promotion of meteorological popularization. The mechanism provides a theoretical reference for the meteorological department to better adapt to the all-media context and to carry out scientific and effective media-based public opinion information risk management.

Assessing the Potential Economic Viability of Precision Irrigation: A Theoretical Analysis and Pilot Empirical Evaluation

The present study explores the value generated by the use of information to rationalize the use of water resources in agriculture. The study introduces the value of information concept in the field of irrigation developing a theoretical assessment framework to evaluate whether the introduction of “Precision Irrigation” (PI) practices can improve expectations on income. This is supported by a Stakeholders consultation and by a numerical example, using secondary data and crop growth models. The study reveals that the value generated with the transition to PI varies with pedo-climate, economic, technological and other conditions, and it depends on the initial status of the farmer’s information environment. These factors affect the prerequisite needed to make viable PI. To foster the adoption of PI, stakeholders envisaged the need to set up free meteorological information and advisory service that supports farmers in using PI, as well as other type of instruments. The paper concludes that the profitability of adoption and the relevant impact on the environment cannot be considered as generally given, but must be evaluated case by case justifying (or not) the activation of specific agricultural policy measures supporting PI practices to target regions.

High-resolution urban observation network for user-specific meteorological information service in the Seoul Metropolitan Area, South Korea

Abstract. To improve our knowledge of urban meteorology, including those processes applicable to high-resolution meteorological models in the Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA), the Weather Information Service Engine (WISE) Urban Meteorological Observation System (UMS-Seoul) has been designed and installed. The UMS-Seoul incorporates 14 surface energy balance (EB) systems, 7 surface-based three-dimensional (3-D) meteorological observation systems and applied meteorological (AP) observation systems, and the existing surface-based meteorological observation network. The EB system consists of a radiation balance system, sonic anemometers, infrared CO2/H2O gas analyzers, and many sensors measuring the wind speed and direction, temperature and humidity, precipitation, and air pressure. The EB-produced radiation, meteorological, and turbulence data will be used to quantify the surface EB according to land use and to improve the boundary-layer and surface processes in meteorological models. The 3-D system, composed of a wind lidar, microwave radiometer, aerosol lidar, or ceilometer, produces the cloud height, vertical profiles of backscatter by aerosols, wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, and liquid water content. It will be used for high-resolution reanalysis data based on observations and for the improvement of the boundary-layer, radiation, and microphysics processes in meteorological models. The AP system includes road weather information, mosquito activity, water quality, and agrometeorological observation instruments. The standardized metadata for networks and stations are documented and renewed periodically to provide a detailed observation environment. The UMS-Seoul data are designed to support real-time acquisition and display and automatically quality check within 10 min from observation. After the quality check, data can be distributed to relevant potential users such as researchers and policy makers. Finally, two case studies demonstrate that the observed data have a great potential to help to understand the boundary-layer structures more deeply, improve the performance of high-resolution meteorological models, and provide useful information customized based on the user demands in the SMA.

Meteorological information service support system in wind park application

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to introduce a holistic decision support system based on condition-based maintenance which utilizes meteorological forecasting information to support decision-making process in services of wind power enterprises.Design/methodology/approach– A pilot conceptual system combining with meteorological information and operations management has been formulated in this study. The proposed system provides benchmarking to support decision making directly and indirectly basing on processing meteorological information and evaluating its impact on service operations. It collects meteorological data to predict failure probabilities in different areas which need corresponding maintenance service and schedule the optimal maintenance periods. In addition, it provides meteorological forecasting and decision support in case of extreme weather events (EWEs).Findings– The conceptual study shows that there is a connection between the meteorological conditions and failures, and it is feasible to make service decisions based on the predictions of weather conditions and their impacts to failures.Research limitations/implications– The research presented at the present phase is not much beyond a conceptual framework. The actual implementation and all possible related practical issues will be dealt with in future research.Practical implications– It helps decision makers to predict and identify possible categories of faults in wind turbine, make optimal service decisions to enhance the output performance of wind power generation, and take in advance emergency counteractions in case of EWEs.Originality/value– It presents a novel concept and provides a roadmap to achieve optimal operations in wind park application through combining meteorological information system with service decision making.

La información climático-meteorológica proporcionada al turista. Explorando el caso español

The importance of the weather and climate for the planning of tourist destinations and the overall travel experience highlights the significance of climate and meteorological information for the trouble-free development of these activities. Providing information at different temporal and spatial resolutions that satisfies different users and their varying needs can be essential to ensure the success and sustainability of tourist destinations. This article examines the characteristics and shortcomings of the climate and meteorological information provided to tourists in the Spanish case. In doing so, we analyse the portals of the main public and private climate and meteorological information services and the portals promoting Spain’s tourist destinations at both the national and regional levels. The results indicate that the climate and meteorological information provided to tourists, while fulfilling the requirements of availability, reliability and credibility established by the WMO, fail to fully satisfy utility requirements as it does not always adapt to the needs of the tourist consumer.

Economic Valuation of a New Meteorological Information Service: Conjoint Analysis for a Pollen Forecast System

Abstract This study aims to investigate the public’s preferences for and quantitatively measure the economic value of a pollen forecast system, a new meteorological information service, in South Korea. To directly measure the economic value of the pollen forecast system and its attributes in terms of the public’s preferences, this study used conjoint analysis and a discrete choice model. In the conjoint survey, seven factors were considered as attributes of the pollen forecast system: the forecast area, forecast interval, information type, forecast period, delivery media, forecast accuracy, and price. Based on survey data from the six largest metropolitan areas in South Korea, the authors estimated people’s utility function by a rank-ordered logit model and calculated the relative importance (RI) and marginal willingness to pay (MWTP) for each attribute. People considered price, meaning the additional tax burden, to be the most important attribute, with a relative importance of 42.3%. In descending order of relative importance, price was followed by forecast accuracy, forecast interval, forecast area, forecast period, and information type; these attributes had MWTP values of 0.133, −0.017, 0.098, 0.059, and 0.011 USD month−1, respectively. The results of this study can serve as guidance of government investments in the pollen forecast system and provide an empirical basis for the application of conjoint analysis to economic valuation studies on a wider range of meteorological information services.

Meteorological Data Mining Based on Rough Set Attributes Reduction and Decision Tree

With the development of society and economy, meteorological information service has been paid more and more attention. Furthermore, frequent extreme weather because of the environmental deterioration makes the accurate and efficient weather forecast more and more important. However, the characteristic of huge amount of meteorological data leads to the difficulty of analysis. The analysis of meteorological data based on data mining technique is a research hotspot currently. This paper analyses the weather elements using the method of rough set attributes reduction, which can remove a portion of factors that can be ignored in the analysis of rainfall possibility, and improves the efficiency of meteorological analysis and decision making using decision tree.

GIS-Based Meteorological Information System for Aquaculture

Under the influence of the global climate change and the increasingly intensified major meteorological disasters in recent years, aquaculture has a stronger demand for meteorological information service. Various meteorological disasters (typhoon, storm, flood, low temperature, etc.) will change the environment of water aquaculture and cause great economic losses to aquaculture. With aquaculture in Zhanjiang of China as the research subject, a meteorological information system has been designed to serve aquaculture. The B/S-based three-layer structure was chosen based on the MS.NET development platform. SQLServer2005 was chosen as the database server and SuperMap IS.NET as the map server. By the use of GIS spatial analysis and thematic map, this system developed the functions of disastrous weather forecast, warning and management and realizes the statistics and analysis of different meteorological disasters. The system provides the users with the personalized suggestions on disaster prevention and mitigation. At present, this system has been put into use. The results show that it can provide the convenient and effective meteorological information service for the users.

Application of Participatory Sensing in Meteorological Information Service System

In order to make weather forecast data more precise and help users to make right decisions, a new method that applying participatory sensing in meteorological information service system is put forward in this paper. The participatory sensing architecture consists of four layers: sensing layer, data transmission layer, data processing layer and application layer. The key technologies involved in each layer are analyzed. Its explained how to fuse sensing data collected from sensors carried by users mobile phone with traditional meteorological data. The weather information service prototype system based on participatory sensing is realized. Through the example, its proved that this system is feasible and effective to improve the precision of weather forecast.

확장 가능한 모바일 기상 정보 서비스를 위한 센서 시스템의 설계

In the mobile meteorological information services, an existing sensor system should be expanded to serve precise information. This is because of large cost problem to add the existing sensors. This thesis proposes a system architecture to construct scalable mobile meteorological information services and suggests mobile phone, sensor network, and public traffic vehicle as expended sensors. The proposed scalable sensors are compared each other and analysed the results to evaluated their strength and weakness. In this system, based on the characteristics of the sense data collected at server, a data processing methods are proposed to support efficient query processing. The proposing data processing methods have several benefits. They compress some data volume sensed by various sources on some area at some time to a logical unit. Still it could preserve same services quality.