Vaisala's Dr. Ryan Said Receives Inaugural HMEI Award for Young Engineers

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Vaisala Oyj                         Press Release                          2014/08/20
 

The Association of Hydro-Meteorological Equipment Industry (HMEI) has awarded Dr. Ryan Said the Award for Young Engineers. The award was presented at the WMO World Weather Open Science Conference, in Montréal, Canada, on the 19th of August 2014.
 
This inaugural award recognizes Dr. Said's work on mastering hardware and software solutions in the development and implementation of Vaisala's global lightning detection network, which generates the commercial Global Lightning Dataset GLD360. The network provides real-time lightning data for accurate and early detection and tracking of severe weather. The Award for Young Engineers is presented to talented engineers under the age of 35 and honors them for their outstanding work in the field of hydrometeorological and other environmental systems and for their design and development of services in HMEI member companies.
 
Dr. Said earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University in Electrical Engineering. Prior to joining Vaisala, he was awarded a patent for a new technique to detect and locate lightning with high accuracy on a global scale using a relatively sparse array of terrestrial receivers. This patent, "Long-range lightning detection and characterization system and method" (US 8073622 B2), which was published on December 6, 2011, is licensed by Vaisala and represents the core technological breakthrough in the GLD360. In addition to the patent filing, Dr. Said has published two papers related to this work. The first, "Long-range lightning geolocation using a VLF radio atmospheric waveform bank," (J. Geophys. Res., 2010), details the methodology behind the new lightning detection technology. The second, "Highly intense lightning over the oceans: Estimated peak currents from global GLD360 observations," (J. Geophys. Res., 2013), leverages the unique capability of this network to estimate peak currents on a global scale to present the first estimate of the spatial distribution of global peak current averages.
 
In addition to creating the necessary intellectual property, Dr. Said was the primary developer for the GLD360 core software working as both a scientist and software engineer. Through his development and subsequent implementation of this global lightning detection network, Dr. Said has made a tremendous contribution to the field of hydrometeorology, and indeed all other fields that relate in some way to convective weather systems.
 
Brooke Pearson, Vaisala Meteorology Product Area Manager for Lightning said: "This is an impressive accomplishment and a well-deserved accolade. I would like to take this opportunity to also recognize the contribution of all those at Vaisala who have been involved in the global implementation of this technology."
 
For more information on HMEI, please visit: http://www.hmei.org/ 
 

About Vaisala Meteorology
 
National meteorological institutes provide weather forecasts and warnings to safeguard people and property. They use weather observation data also to measure extreme weather phenomena and follow the changing climate. Turnkey projects and capability upgrades for prediction of severe weather are imperative for customers in the developing markets.
 
Vaisala's offering to the meteorological institutes includes a versatile range of high-end products, integrated measurement systems and services. Vaisala Meteorology is the trusted partner of meteorological and hydrological institutes whose primary interest is safety and wellbeing of people and safeguarding of property. Customer needs vary from standard weather observation equipment to further automation of weather networks and remote monitoring systems.
 
About Vaisala
 
Vaisala is a global leader in environmental and industrial measurement. Building on 78 years of experience, Vaisala contributes to a better quality of life by providing a comprehensive range of innovative observation and measurement products and services for chosen weather-related and industrial markets. Headquartered in Finland, Vaisala employs approximately 1500 professionals worldwide and is listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki stock exchange. www.vaisala.com  www.twitter.com/VaisalaGroup