An Overview of the Oklahoma City Micronet

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An Overview of the Oklahoma City Micronet

• Jeffrey B. Basara, Ph.D.
• Director of Research
• Oklahoma Climatological Survey
• University of Oklahoma

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OKC Micronet - Summary

• Network of 40 stations (4 Mesonet Sites, 36
  Traffic Signal Sites) 3 km station spacing.
• 1-minute Data Collection Real-time and archive
  quality assurance (QA).
• 5 year effort.
• True collaboration with Oklahoma City.
• All sites are deployed and the network was
  commissioned on 8 November 2008.

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Project Vision

• Science - Specific, focused research projects
  developed around the dense, research-quality
  observations in Oklahoma City.
• Application - Applying the data collected to meet
  the needs of a broad range of users.
• Outreach - Focused outreach to urban K-12
  students, First Responders, etc.

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Phase 1

• New Oklahoma Mesonet Sites in OKC
• 3 new sites (OKCN, OKCW, and OKCE)
• Serve to cover the transition zone from rural to
  urban.
• OKCN was deployed in late February 2007
• OKCW was deployed in early April 2007
• OKCE was deployed in mid April 2007

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Phase 2

• Traffic-signal Stations
• 36 sites mounted on traffic signals.
• Prototype built and deployed in 2007 with the
  help of OKC colleagues.
• Utilizes OKC infrastructure (hardware,
  communications, power)
• Remaining 35 stations deployed during May 2008.
• Currently collecting data as part of the normal
  operations of OKCNET.

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Traffic-Signal Concept

• Deploy sites at approximately 9 meters at
  locations across OKC.
• Made possible due to
• OKC maintains the largest municipal wireless mesh
  network in the world and,
• was willing to share the infrastructure (traffic
  poles, WiFi nodes, power) in return for the data
  for a variety of municipal applications.

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Hardware Information

• Station Requirements
• Aesthetically inconspicuous
• Compact size
• Durable (10 years)
• Cost effective
• Low power/bandwidth usage
• Research quality observations

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Vaisala WXT510 Sensor

• 2-D Sonic Winds
• Impact Sensor for Precipitation (Rain and Hail)
• Air Temperature
• Humidity
• Pressure

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• Traffic Signal Station

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Station Siting

• Sites Selection Method
• Identification of WiFi nodes via information
  provided by Oklahoma City.
• Comparison with the conceptual model.
• Many, many field surveys.
• Co-location with critical public landmarks
  whenever possible (schools, roadways, malls,
  etc.).

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Data Quality Assurance

• The Oklahoma City Micronet quality assurance (QA)
  consists of three principal components
• Laboratory Calibration
• Automated Quality Assurance
• Manual Quality Assurance

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OKC Micronet Webpage okc.mesonet.org
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December 14, 2008 Cold Front
Temperature observations at 9 m 140 pm CDT
(1940 UTC) Oklahoma City
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OKC Micronet Lessons Learned

• Technology and Infrastructure are very different
  from rural areas (power, communications, station
  siting).
• K.I.S.S. Standardize as much as possible.
• Support from the City of OKC was essential the
  network would not have been possible without the
  enthusiastic, extraordinary assistance from a
  number of OKC individuals and departments.

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Questions?