Early warning sensor network for brown-out conditions : phase II - field testing and assessment.

Details

• Creators:
  Etyemezian, Vicken R. ; Nikolich, George ; DuBois, David ; Klose, Martina ; DeAntonio, Mike ; Zadeh, Zahra Ghodsi ; Givens, Chris ; Sudderth, Alex ; Chen, Darren
• Corporate Creators:
  SOLARIS Consortium ; University of Nevada System. Desert Research Institute ; New Mexico State University
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Brown-outs Dust Dust-storms Sand Sand-storms Storms Visibility Warning Systems Wind
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Western States ; United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  SOLARIS Consortium
• Abstract:
  All three states within the SOLARIS (Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico) domain as well
  
  as other states such as Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado have had traffic accidents with
  
  fatalities in recent years due to brownout conditions, where windblown dust is so thick
  
  that visibility is impaired and traffic safety is compromised. In the near-term, early warning
  
  sensor networks in specific portions of the roadway network where brownout events are
  
  known to occur could offer the most effective means to mitigate traffic accidents and
  
  deaths stemming from dust storms.
  
  This project has focused on developing a ground based early warning system for
  
  roadway brownout conditions. It is envisioned that this system would ultimately consists
  
  of multiple, networked nodes that are emplaced upstream of roadways with known or
  
  suspected brownout potential. The fact that the network is upwind of the roadway
  
  provides the ability to accurately gauge the onset of brownout conditions prior to the
  
  significant deterioration of visibility. The spatially distributed network design allows for
  
  identifying which source areas are the greatest contributors to brownout conditions. This
  
  information can be used over time to mitigate blowing dust from such source areas and
  
  reduce the occurrence of brownout conditions.
  
  This report covers the work effort during this phase of development, which focused
  
  on deploying the main sand sensing instrument, nicknamed the SANTRI™ (ES_Figure 1), at
  
  various locations and under varying conditions. The main objective was to conduct shortterm
  
  field trials of the sand movement sensing platform that could serve as part of an early
  
  warning brownout system. To that end, several SANTRI™ platforms were tested by three
  
  separate investigators in different field studies. Two SANTRI™ units (units #7 and #8) were delivered to Dr. David DuBois’ group at the New Mexico State University (NMSU) where
  
  they were deployed on campus and also on a playa setting. Two units (#5 and #6) were
  
  sent to Dr. Martina Klose, who was also at NMSU but who deployed the field instruments
  
  independently at the Jornada Experimental Range in New Mexico and other locations.
  
  Additionally, three units (#2, #3, and #4) were sent to the Netherlands as part of a different
  
  project in collaboration with Wageningen University to participate in an ongoing field
  
  study at a beach erosion site. Insights from the measurements in the Netherlands are
  
  complimentary to the two deployments in New Mexico, which were in more relevant
  
  settings for brownout condition detection.
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:3f9141078a451b6900dcd6b00351c02427d57cf90ed58199a26f10ab2e6d777c
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/32233/dot_32233_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.02 MB ]