Ticker for March 9, 1999

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
March 9, 1999      March 9, 1999      March 9, 1999      March 9, 1999


MESONET'S FIFTH BIRTHDAY:  Second of five releases

This Week Marks Oklahoma Mesonet's Fifth Anniversary
Diverse Operational Uses Rely on Network's Data

For Immediate Release - Second of Five Releases - Three Pages
Contact:  Derek Arndt
405-325-3076
darndt@ou.edu

Tuesday - March 9, 1999

Wednesday, March 10th will mark the fifth anniversary of the
commissioning of the Oklahoma Mesonetwork.  Oklahoma's is a unique,
world-class network of 115 environmental monitoring stations.  The
network measures weather and soil conditions every 15 minutes,
24 hours per day, each day of the year, in each county of the state.

Many different operational uses of Mesonet data have evolved during the
network's history, serving a wide spectrum of people in many different
disciplines.

Real-time Oklahoma Mesonet data provide National Weather Service (NWS)
forecasters and hydrologists with resources which none of their peers
outside Oklahoma have been able to enjoy.  One example of the unique
advantage Oklahoma forecasters have gained appears in the following
forecast discussion from the NWS forecast office in Norman:

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORMAN OK
705 PM CST THU JAN 28 1999

MAKING SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES TO THE FIRST AND SECOND PERIODS OF
THE ZONES ACROSS THE WEST TO REMOVE SNOW ACCUMULATIONS TONIGHT
ACROSS NORTHWEST OKLAHOMA AND EMPHASIZE MORE THE THREAT OF
ACCUMULATING FREEZING RAIN AND SLEET. PER OKLAHOMA MESONET ...
SOIL TEMPERATURES IN THE MIDDLE AND UPPER 30S ... SO ICE
ACCUMULATIONS WILL LIKELY BE SMALL ... BUT HAZARDOUS DRIVING
CONDITIONS WILL STILL DEVELOP.

The growing collection of Mesonet observations serves as a superior
climatological resource of unparalleled density and quality.  In the
last five years, two dry/drought periods that have occurred across most
of Oklahoma were captured in great detail as they developed by the dense
observations of the Mesonet.  Response times for government agencies
to fires and agricultural emergencies were reduced as a result.

Agricultural operators, such as pesticide applicators, use Mesonet data
in their daily decisions.  Growers have taken to Mesonet-based
agricultural pest models to assist them in crop decisions with
interactivity never before possible.

State emergency managers with access to Mesonet data can make decisions
based on current weather when fighting fires, spotting storms or
mitigating and managing other emergencies.

The Mesonet provides an infrastructure for the development of related
projects, whose availability had been hampered previously by the cost
of remote communication.  For example, the Oklahoma Water Resources
Board cooperates with the Mesonet to operate a network of stream gauges
in some of Oklahoma's most flood-prone streams.

Mesonet data have proven valuable during specific events, including the
rescue efforts at the Alfred P. Murrah Building site in April 1995, the
past three NCAA Women's Softball World Series, the droughts of 1995-96
and 1998.

A ceremony commemorating the fifth anniversary will be held on the
first floor rotunda of the Oklahoma State Capitol on Thursday,
March 11th at 10:30 a.m.

Some operational tools based on the Oklahoma Mesonet, and their associated web pages:

The Advanced Regional Prediction System
(ARPS) Weather Forecast Model    http://cirrus.gcn.ou.edu/ARPS
The Oklahoma Fire Danger Model    http://agweather.mesonet.org/fire/data.html
The Oklahoma Rainfall Update    http://www.mesonet.org/ocs/rainfall.html
The Oklahoma Alfalfa Weevil Model  http://agweather.mesonet.org/models/alfalfa
The Oklahoma Peanut Leafspot Model  http://agweather.mesonet.org/models/peanut
The Oklahoma Dispersion Model    http://agweather.mesonet.org/models/dispersion
The Oklahoma Pecan Scab Model    http://www.okstate.edu/~mesonet/scab
The Pecan Nut Casebearer Model    http://www.okstate.edu/~mesonet/texas

Mesonet Milestones:
August 1988     Open Meeting held to present the Mesonet concept
December 1990   Contract signed with U.S. Dept. of Commerce for $2M in
oil overcharge funds
January 1991    Project Manager hired
March 1991      Data communications testing begins
December 1991   First operational towers installed in the field
April 1992      Calibration laboratory established
June 1992       EARTHSTORM educational outreach program funded by NSF
August 1992     Mesonet takes on USDA-ARS Little Washita Micronet
July 1993       Last of original 108 Mesonet sites completed
February 1994   Noble Foundation Funding Received
March 10, 1994  Mesonet formally commissioned
May 1995        USDA-ARS Micronet modernization completed
August 1995     Mesonet Center for Environmental Applications funded
by NSF
September 1995  Majority of Oklahoma Water Resources Board stream gauge
network installed
December 1995   Mesonet enters cooperative data handling for OWRB stream
gauges
May 1996        Three Tulsa-area EPSCoR sites added, bringing network
total to 114
June 1996       Norman Landfill, a national research facility, fitted with
Mesonet instrumentation
October 1996    $550K OK-FIRST grant awarded from U.S. Dept. of Commerce
March 1997      Mesonet soil moisture sensors come on-line (60 sites)
Summer 1997     Mesonet data used in cooperation with Southern Great
Plains Project
October 1997    NSF funds $1M OASIS grant, for major upgrade of Mesonet
sensors
July 1998       115th Mesonet site added at EPA research site near Ada
August 1998     First "Mesonet, Jr." station installed for Alva
Middle School
Summer 1998     Mesonet resources, products used daily to help Oklahoma
respond to fire danger

Some Mesonet Facts and Figures:
o  Commissioned March 10, 1994
o  Cooperative program of Oklahoma State University and the
University of Oklahoma
o  Multi-purpose environmental monitoring network serving variety
of needs
o  "Mesonet" comes from the meteorological prefix "meso" (mid-sized
events) and "network"
o  115 full-fledged Mesonet stations (at least one in each county)
plus 42-station United States Department of Agriculture "Micronet"
south and southwest of Chickasha
o  Five Oklahoma Water Resources Board stream gauges and seven
additional special research sites are handled by the Mesonet's
infrastructure
o  The Mesonet facility handles about 5000 Mesonet observations every
fifteen minutes, about 480,000 Mesonet observations per day and
175 million Mesonet observations per year.
o  The Mesonet facility handles about 670 Micronet observations every
fifteen minutes (64,000 per day, 2.3 million per year)
o  Access to Mesonet data is available, in real time, via the World-Wide
Web and dial-up networking.


Each Mesonet station:
o  Observes up to 13 atmospheric parameters (air temperature at one or
two heights, relative humidity, wind speed at two heights, wind
direction, wind variability indices, solar radiation, rainfall)
every five minutes
o  Observes up to five soil temperature and four soil moisture
parameters every 15 and 30 minutes, respectively
o  Observes environmental data from 10 meters (about 33 feet) above
the ground to 75 cm (about 30 inches) below ground
o  Reports observations to Norman facility every 15 minutes
o  Operates on a solar-charged battery, using a quarter of the power
of a standard night light
o  Operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
o  When fully-instrumented, will report 1.6 million different
observations per year
o  Is, on average, 19 miles from its nearest neighboring Mesonet station


In five years (1994-1998):
o  The Mesonet has collected data for two drought periods, and several
tropical storms
o  The Mesonet has successfully archived 99.9% of possible observations
o  The Mesonet observed 1,098 wind gusts exceeding the NWS threshold
for severe winds
o  The presence of the Oklahoma Mesonet has brought more than 20 million
dollars in research grants into the state of Oklahoma.