Weather is perhaps the most common subject of conversation everywhere in the world. And subsequently, people follow forecasts and weather events with keen interest. We need accurate weather information and base quite a few daily decisions on it.
Climate change, growing urbanization and the fact that the word's largest cities are built on coastal areas make today's societies more vulnerable to extreme weather phenomena and other environmental threats than ever before. The more information we are able to provide about the environmental conditions and the faster and more precise it is, the better we can safeguard societies, human lives and property.
Vaisala's customers, such as national weather services, airport operators, road authorities and energy companies, are in a key position to ensure safe and efficient operations and lower environmental impacts of the everyday life.
Weather forecasting
National meteorological and hydrological institutes need a continuous stream of high-quality weather data in order to safeguard people and property. In addition, they need reliable weather observation data to measure and explain the state of the atmosphere and climate change.
To provide accurate and reliable forecasts, severe-weather predictions and early warnings, weather services need to have access to a wide variety of integrated measurement systems and services. The weather data collected from these different observation sources is fed to computers using highly sophisticated atmospheric models, which calculate the most likely forecasts on a global, national or local scale.
Over two thirds of the world's national meteorological institutes are Vaisala's customers. Vaisala's equipment plays a crucial role in global weather forecasting. In addition to enabling regular weather forecasting, Vaisala is also committed to supporting the study of climate change. A good example of this is the reference radiosonde project which aims to develop an instrument to provide accurate environmental data from the upper atmosphere for the use of climate change researchers.
Weather in traffic
The transport networks form the backbone of societies all over the world. Keeping these networks flowing is vital for the economy. Safe and on-time air travel and smooth traffic flows contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of airport operations and road maintenance. Equal for both operations, weather is also the most common reason for accidents, incidents and delays, with potentially severe consequences.
In airports, reliable, timely and accurately communicated weather information is a prerequisite for making right and timely decisions. Weather conditions, such as thunderstorms, low visibility, wind shear, heavy rain and icing, can cause hazards for pilots and the entire operations alike.
Vaisala is a forerunner in the airport weather market and annually delivers systems and solutions to more than 100 airports around the world.
Similarly, we are a leading player in road weather systems. Local road authorities are responsible for traffic weather monitoring and winter maintenance of road networks. In order to know when to salt, plow and issue warnings, the road authorities need be able to integrate weather information into their operational decision making processes. Right decisions improve safety and produce significant savings, and help reduce the environmental impacts caused by maintenance operations.
Vaisala serves road authorities in 25 countries and have installed over 3,000 weather stations worldwide.
Weather critical energy
Weather is an important factor in power generation. In warm countries, the high temperatures affect the transmission capacity, and in cold countries, the icing conditions complicate maintenance actions. In addition, storms and lightning strikes can break power lines due to fallen trees. To ensure uninterrupted power supply and cost-efficient energy production, the implications of weather need to be carefully taken into account.
Vaisala's weather energy customers are investigating the suspected faults caused by lightning or studying the climate of their transmission territory. The North-American customers, for instance, can benefit from Vaisala's real-time and historical lightning data services.
Tactical weather observations
Organizations such as defense forces and homeland security are in charge of ensuring the country’s defense and security. They need weather information to understand it's effect to their mission and in order to improve safety and effectiveness of their operations.Additionally, these organizations are in many countries responsible for various weather critical activities such as civil aviation, rescue operations or meteorological services. Vaisala serves defense forces and security organizations by providing large variety of different weather observation systems and solutions to support operational decision making.