Center for Severe Weather Research Chases Storms

The Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR) is a non-profit research organization, dedicated to tracking and studying tornados, hurricanes, and other atmospheric conditions. The CSWR and its research efforts have been featured in programs on Discovery Channel, National Geographic, History Channel, CBS and NBC, as well as on PBS’ NOVA.

Challenges

The CSWR’s Doppler On Wheels (DOW) Project created several mobile Doppler weather radars mounted on trucks that permitted the first ever mappings of tornado winds, hurricane wind streaks and resolution of detailed tornado structure.

As the configuration of the DOWs evolved, a crude VHF tracking system was added and included a universal serial bus (USB) global positioning system (GPS) antenna. Unfortunately, the system was unreliable and left CSWR in search of a more reliable tracking solution.

With IMAX and National Geographic movies under his belt and a television series funded by the Discovery Channel in process CSWR had the funding for a more advanced communications solution. He turned to leading edge, communication systems provider Astral Communications, Inc. for an integrated mobile data and fleet tracking solution based on reliable cellular connectivity provided by the Sierra Wireless AirLink™ PinPoint X communications gateway.

Solution

Astral started by integrating a sophisticated GPS mapping software, provided by TrackStar, International with the CSWR’s other critical software on 30 laptops used for in-vehicle mobile data processing.

“It was a huge integration over about five months,” explained Chip George, vice president at Astral Communications. “We had to focus a lot on the radio work, whereas setting up the PinPoint X devices was a no-brainer. That part was pretty much flawless.”

Using ACEnet, an enterprise grade one-to-many remote management tool, Astral was easily able to configure the devices and change solution parameters as needed to provide optimal performance despite changes in the DOW fleet.

The Sierra Wireless AirLink PinPoint X mobile gateways provided the following benefits for CSWR:

• Reliable connectivity – ALEOS intelligence provides “always-on” and “always-aware” connectivity required for critical mobile data applications.
• Proven field ruggedness – MIL-STD 810 certified for high performance in the harshest of environmental conditions, presented by tornadoes and other atmospheric conditions.
• Comprehensive remote management – Deeply integrated with ALEOS, ACEware tools allow for quick and easy configuration,