School Weather Systems

Mars - Earth program
Advanced School Weather Systems
Observations and Comparisons
Seattle and International Schools
J. E. Tillman

Weather station experiment and observations
Local, International, Inter Planetary

Make and compare weather observations with other schools and institutions in our network, especially those with advanced capabilities
Compare observations with those to be added at schools associated with my collaborators in Finland and future collaborator locations
Compare terrestrial observations with
- Viking and Pathfinder results
Understanding temperature -- boundary layer meteorology relationships has been one of Tillman's primary areas of study on Earth and Mars
He has developed techniques that use temperature measurements and atmospheric pressure to characterize the primary surface to atmosphere heat and momentum fluxes as well as atmospheric stability, i.e., Atmospheric Surface Layer, ASL, relationships
These research results have been exploited in applications such as agricultural meteorology
They need to be revised and improved
In this context students will:
- Perform classroom and outside experiments to better understand temperature and temperature -- energy relationships.
- Help test, revise and expand the applicability of the above ASL relationships replace complex meteorological experiments with simple measurements
- Support and help carry out this research and prepare the next generation of scientists
For the earliest grades, we have begun this task, in conjunction with teachers and students, by:
- Preparing a temperature module, beginning with a collaboration between the late, nationally renowned, Aki Kurose and Jim Tillman
- Investigate how temperature measurements are made, and how they vary due to the surroundings,
- Aki's' hands on methodology demonstrated how an exemplary teacher can help first grade students acquire an understanding far beyond the "standards" by asking the proper questions
- "Temperature of Earth and Mars" by Tillman and Mike Howard, has been written and as of June 2000, has been piloted in grades 4 and 8
- It will be revised and undergo wider distribution and more piloting
- During revision, it will be expanded and augmented to carry out new observations with student assisted research at schools and other sites
- These will be coupled with experimental and research tools that allow and encourage students to contribute to these programs , as a brilliant former high school student did during the Viking mission.
Discover phenomena and unusual/extreme events not observable with the standard Weather Service measurements, reporting frequency and data access
- By having access to the highest resolution--volume data, and using the latest versions of our web software, students can display instantaneous peak winds, measured every second, in addition to the one minute averages
- We have detected peak winds of 83 knots and are in the process of verifying the accuracy of the system
- We recently modified our software to save the point by point high wind data for further study by schools and Atmospheric Scientists
- If correct, does these observations have any implication regarding on our understanding of regional high winds?
Track events such as these intense wind gusts and precipitation events as they move between stations studying their lifetime, speed and intensity
Develop technology collaborations with high schools to:
- Maintain program sites and systems, documenting them and reporting to Core facility
- Learn to fabricate inexpensive, advanced temperature sensors we have developed, for school and research use
- Test components in our remotely operable environmental temperature chamber over -65 to + 50 Celsius temperature range, and document results
- At more comprehensive sites, with uniform terrain, help install and maintain sensors and systems, providing data for research investigations
- Replicate the K-12 infrastructure and collaborations, allowing world wide participation in these investigations

The LFEM School Weather Station Program

( Tillman supported by a gift from
Jeremy and Linda Jaech)

Coe

The Coe School Weather Station is off line while the school is being rebuilt.
David Warren system programmer in the University of Washington Atmospheric Sciences Department (and parent of a Coe student), and Fred Weller assembled and installed a weather station, computer and data relay software for Coe School, Queen Anne Hill, grades K-5. (Thanks to Fred for his volunteer time!)
Neal Johnson enhanced his station plotting software to incorporate the additional and different sensors at Coe, and Jim Tillman contributed to the functionality design.
Coe has solar radiation (not available from standard weather observations), tipping bucket rain gauge, one second sampling and one minute reporting.
You can Make your own plots of regional weather stations, including Coe
The development version of the display software shows the fastest measurement within the minute
It indicated a 83 knot peak or 94 MPH on 3 March 1999
Courtesy of Rosemary Aragon, University Rotary and Group Health, we obtained 20 more computers (see below)
Coe school is currently off line for reconstruction but prior data are still available, JET 2000/10/02

McClure

McClure, Queen Anne Hill, Grades 6 -- 8 is our first partner in the weather station program
We have installed a research quality, weather station and a computer automated real time communication system and infrastructure
It was installed by Fred Weller, David Warren, Neal Johnson and Jim Tillman of UW, and Rand McDonald, of the McClure staff.
University Rotary Community Service Committee, Karon Fenton, Chair, provided $2,000 matching funds for the proposal initiated by Jim Tillman to help purchase the weather station components
The rest of the funds are being supplied by the school and the PTA
By comparing their data with Coe, UW and future stations, students will be able to study the local weather in great detail at their schools, and perform experiments
Compare extreme events, such as the very high peak gust seen at Coe school on 3 March 1999, with their observations
The network configuration as of January 1999 is shown in this diagram. However, the Coe 386 has been upgraded to one of Group Health 486's and other machines have been added.
Rooftop Installation drawing
McClure weather station component costs
Courtesy of Rosemary Aragon, University Rotary and Group Health, we obtained 60 more computers, providing 5 each for 12 classrooms (see below)
We great-fully acknowledge Fred Weller commitment and donation of time in designing, assembling and installing the McClure-Rotary-Fred Weller weather station, so named without his knowledge
Please see the report in the Seattle PI "Weather station helps middle school with real-world science"

Other Schools

Many individuals, educators and others are or have expressed interest in participating in the program. Those who are interested in participating, supporting or helping develop the program, please contact Jim Tillman at the below address.

Group Health -- Rotary -- School -- University of Washington collaboration
Computers and data distribution

In response to a request from Jim Tillman, Rosemary Aragon, University Rotary and Group Health, obtained from Group Health, six 486 PC's, with 1.6 GB disk, 16 megs Ram, and Ethernet Network Interface Cards, (NIC)
The first of these replaced the original 386 at Coe
The faster processor and greater disk allowed David Warren to convert from Berkeley Unix to Linux
These are now running Linux and Unidata's Internet Data Distribution software
- "Unidata's Local Data Manager (LDM) software, designed to move data in near-real time over the Internet computer network; as data arrive at various source locations, they are distributed to relay sites which, in turn, relay them to end-users or to other relays until all data recipients have been served"
- With Linux and Unidata installed, the PC's operate unattended
- UW is one of the 8 national top tier sites, in the university -- research consortium infrastructure that distribute data to over 120 other sites
- Daily, we distribute 8 or more GBytes of weather data throughout the region covering Alaska, Washington, Hawaii, California, down through Arizona from DEC Alpha based workstation
In addition to the $2,000 University Rotary Service Fund grant, through Rotary and Group Health, we obtained 90 more systems for use at McClure, Coe and UW at no cost.
McClure, is installing five of these machines in each of 12 class rooms

James E. Tillman
Research Professor
Department of Atmospheric Sciences
Box 351640
University of Washington
Seattle, WA, 98195-1640
mars@atmos.washington.edu
(206) 543-4586

Created 99/09/04
Last update 99/12/24
Linked from http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~mars/
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Mars - Earth program Advanced School Weather Systems Observations and Comparisons Seattle and International Schools J. E. Tillman

Mars - Earth program
Advanced School Weather Systems
Observations and Comparisons
Seattle and International Schools
J. E. Tillman