Quality of Mobile Air Temperature and Atmospheric Pressure Observations from the 2010 Development Test Environment Experiment

Abstract

The 2010 Development Test Environment Experiment (DTE10) took place from 28 January to 29 March 2010 in the Detroit, Michigan, metropolitan area for the purposes of collecting and evaluating mobile data from vehicles. To examine the quality of these data, over 239 000 air temperature and atmospheric pressure observations were obtained from nine vehicles and were compared with a weather station set up at the testing site. The observations from the vehicles were first run through the NCAR Vehicle Data Translator (VDT). As part of the VDT, quality-checking (QCh) tests were applied; pass rates from these tests were examined and were stratified by meteorological and nonmeteorological factors. Statistics were then calculated for air temperature and atmospheric pressure in comparison with the weather station, and the effects of different meteorological and nonmeteorological factors on the statistics were examined. Overall, temperature measurements showed consistent agreement with the weather station, and there was little impact from the QCh process or stratifications-a result that demonstrated the feasibility of collecting mobile temperature observations from vehicles. Atmospheric pressure observations were less well matched with surface validation, the degree of which varied with the make and model of vehicle. Therefore, more work must be done to improve the quality of these observations if atmospheric pressure from vehicles is to be useful.

Crowdsourcing Methods for Data Collection in Geophysics: State of the Art, Issues, and Future Directions

“…For example, automobiles are equipped with a variety of sensors, including cameras, impact sensors, wiper sensors, and sun sensors, which could all be used to derive weather data such as humidity, sun radiation, and pavement temperature (B. Mahoney et al, ; W. P. Mahoney & O'Sullivan, ). Similarly, modern smartphones are also equipped with a number of sensors, which enables them to be used to measure air temperature, atmospheric pressure, and relative humidity (Anderson et al, ; Madaus & Mass, ; Mass & Madaus, ; Mcnicholas & Mass, ; Sosko & Dalyot, ). More specifically, smartphone batteries, as well as smartphone‐interfaced wireless sensors, have been used to indicate air temperature in surrounding regions (B. Mahoney et al, ; Majethisa et al, 2015).…”

“…More specifically, smartphone batteries, as well as smartphone‐interfaced wireless sensors, have been used to indicate air temperature in surrounding regions (B. Mahoney et al, ; Majethisa et al, 2015). In addition to automobiles and smartphones, some research has been carried out to investigate the potential of transforming vehicles to moving sensors for measuring air temperature and atmospheric pressure (Anderson et al, ; Overeem, Leijnse, et al, ). For instance, bicycles equipped with thermometers were employed to collect air temperature in remote regions (Cassano, ; Melhuish & Pedder, ).…”

Meteorological and Ancillary Data Resources for Climate Research in Urban Areas

“…Ref [47] provided a systematic review of crowdsourcing for climate and atmospheric research, identifying initiatives, projects and programs based on citizen science and amateur weather stations (e.g., UK Met Office Weather Observation Website in the UK; Meteoclimatic in the Iberian Peninsula; CoCoRaHS in the US; Birmingham snow depth; Air Quality Egg), mobile app (e.g., WeatherSignal; iCelsius), moving platforms (e.g., OpenSense), which have been implemented in many areas of regions around the world. The applicability of these data resources was demonstrated in several studies (e.g., [51][52][53][54]). A further example of applicability is offered by [55], who integrated air temperature measurements from the Weather Underground network of Atlanta and Chicago in the analysis of the performance of the National Weather Service Heat Warning System against ground observations and satellite imagery, by assigning them to the pixels of LST Aqua and Terra MODIS satellite retrievals.…”

High-resolution air temperature mapping in urban areas: A review on different modelling techniques

“…In addition, crowdsourcing has proved to be a valuable tool in the preparation of a large amount of air temperature data, and many different crowdsourcing projects for temperature data collection have been implemented [141]. Drobot et al [142,143] and Anderson et al [144] used vehicles sensors for air temperature measurements. Mobile phone application is also utilized for the measurement of weather data using mobile phone sensors (wathersignal.…”