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:
  • Warning systems
  • Storms
  • Wind
  • Sand
  • Dust
  • Visibility
  • Brown-outs
  • Dust-storms
  • Sand-storms
• 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.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/32233/dot_32233_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 5.02 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:3f9141078a451b6900dcd6b00351c02427d57cf90ed58199a26f10ab2e6d777c