Vaisala IceCast NowCast Controller
NowCasting Software
When the forecasting of road surface temperature and ice
formation is improved, it becomes possible to improve winter road and
runway maintenance processes. Advance warning of overhead wire ice
events also allow rail operators to better plan their winter processes. To this
end, Vaisala has developed an automated ice
NowCasting model. This model incorporates the Vaisala
IceBreak Heat Balance Model, which dispenses with the need for human
intervention. As a result, Vaisala is able to provide 3
hour NowCasting of surface / overhead wire temperature and state
for specific weather station (RWIS / ESS) locations. This is particularly
valuable for monitoring potential weather hazards and mobilizing resources in
time to take effective preventive action.
IceBreak is the world's most popular ice
prediction model, used by more than 10 national meteorological services to
deliver forecasts to road, rail and airport authorities.
Vaisala has used the NowCasting model in many
different places around the world.
NowCasting provides the facility for the
road, runway or rail operators to independently generate short-term forecasts.
NowCasts are 3 hour automatically generated forecasts of
surface temperature and state for specific weather stations.
Key features
3 hour NowCasts for surface temperature and surface state
(can be extended to 6 hours with additional Mesoscale data)
NowCasts are viewed in
IceView
No human input required
Time at which the NowCasts are produced
defined by the user
Temperature level below which the
NowCasts are produced per site defined by user
Can be used to produce
NowCasts of overhead cable temperatures and states for rail
applications
The below image shows a forecast graph
displayed within the IceCast IceView display software. The
graph shows four short range NowCasts displayed as
differently hashed lines, spanning 3 hours each.