National Weather Service forecasts future with Stevens

HOBOKEN, N.J. — When the National Weather Service (NWS) wants to know what is happening on New Jersey’s coast, it knows who to call — Stevens Institute of Technology.

Stevens’ Coastal Monitoring Network and the NWS in Mt. Holly, N.J., have formed an alliance to add data conditions from Stevens’ two coastal sites to NWS’s weather forecasts.

According to researchers at Stevens, the data from the sites can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week via the Internet, providing forecasters with accurate, real-time data whenever they need it. They also see the long-term data being used in computer modeling of weather.

"The novelty one year ago was that we were building the sites; now it’s that we are making use of the data," said Dr. Michael Bruno, professor and director of Davidson Laboratory. "We now have long-term data sets with almost a year of data from the Avalon, N.J. site."

According to Bruno, the weather service is interested in information provided by Stevens’ Coastal Monitoring Network, making use of its gages on beaches in Avalon, N.J., and Long Beach Island, N.J.

The weather service’s existing weather stations are located in Atlantic City, Belmar and Trenton. According to Bruno, what happens at these inland locations is not indicative of what’s happening on the coast.

"Because conditions on the ocean coastline are quite different from those inland," Bruno said, "the data provided by our sites will allow forecasters to more accurately predict conditions throughout the region."

With cost-cutting measures taking place in the weather service, officials are forming alliances with educational institutions such as Stevens for the latest innovations in weather study.

"Coastal monitoring can be very challenging because of violent conditions that take place in those areas," said Dr. Thomas Herrington, research assistant professor in the Davidson Laboratory. "Our real-time, continuous data systems are stable and have survived high winds such as with Hurricane Floyd in the fall of 1999."

In addition to the weather service, Herrington stated that the Coastal Monitoring Network is a good resource for anyone working on water. Fishermen can use the data to see what conditions for the day will be, and ex-beach combers can visit the site to get a taste of what they’re missing.

"We had more than 1,000 hits during Floyd, and we have hundreds of hits on any other given day," Herrington said.

Stevens received a station identifier from the weather service that allows data to be incorporated right into the data center and provide the weather service with up-to-date, real-time data.

Stevens’ Coastal Monitoring Network can be found on the World Wide Web at cmn.dl.stevens-tech.edu.

NOTE TO REPORTERS: To schedule an interview with Bruno or Herrington, please contact Jaimee Moore at the number listed above.

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University TM , lives at the intersection of industry, academics and research.  The University's students, faculty and partners leverage their collective real-world experience and culture of innovation, research and entrepreneurship to confront global challenges in engineering, science, systems and technology management.

Based in Hoboken, N.J. and with a location in Washington, D.C., Stevens offers baccalaureate, master’s, certificates and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences and management, in addition to baccalaureate degrees in business and liberal arts.  Stevens has been recognized by both the US Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Excellence in the areas of systems engineering and port security research. The University has a total enrollment of more than 2,200 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with almost 450 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as strategic partnerships with industry leaders, governments and other universities around the world.  Additional information may be obtained at www.stevens.edu and www.stevens.edu/press.