Open AccessForecasting road‐surface temperatures for different site characteristics
Author(s) -
Jacobs Wilfried,
Raatz Wolfgang E
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
meteorological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1469-8080
pISSN - 1350-4827
DOI - 10.1002/met.5060030306
Subject(s) - environmental science , meteorology , hindcast , energy balance , road surface , geography , engineering , civil engineering , ecology , biology
In 1992/93 the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) introduced SWIS (Straßenzustands‐ und Wetterinformationssystem) as a nationwide road weather information system. In order to forecast road conditions and road‐surface temperature over a time period of 27 hours, an energy balance model is used. The course of the energy fluxes is estimated by the meteorological parameters. It is thus very important that the forecaster provides an excellent synoptic input for the energy balance model. The energy balance model is able to account for five different road site characteristics; i.e. unobstructed road sections with regular and little traffic, respectively, shaded road sections, bridges and road sections within urban influences. To evaluate the model's quality, the technique of hindcasting was employed by running the model for a day in the past (running time 0900 UTC of a given day to 1200 UTC the following day), using measured values of a specific road weather monitoring station complemented by observations from a nearby synoptic station. Preliminary results show that from 1500 UTC to 1800 UTC the mean errors are 1 to 2 K, during the remaining forecast time the mean errors are often less than 1 K; results are even better during clear sky conditions.