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PURPOSE
This document describes the technical performance results of the prototype MDSS
weather and road condition prediction products and treatment recommendations based on
the winter 2003-2004 Iowa field demonstration. The field demonstration ended on 24
March 2004. Data analysis began shortly after its completion and has proceeded for
several months. Many different aspects of the Road Weather Forecast System (RWFS)
and MDSS are addressed here, including their performance for the entire field season for
all sites, and during individual events that impacted roadways in the region of interest
(near Ames, Iowa). Individual components of the system are also evaluated, including
the road temperature module, road treatment module, mesoscale weather models and the
display.
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INTENDED AUDIENCE
The intended audiences of this document are persons directly involved in the MDSS field
demonstration (e.g., FHWA, Iowa State DOT, National Laboratories), stakeholders with
an interest in the MDSS project (private sector meteorological service providers and State
DOTs), and casual observers who wish to follow developments related to winter road
maintenance technologies. It is recommended that the reader have a working knowledge
of meteorological verification methods and statistical analysis metrics.
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BACKGROUND
This MDSS Project is part of a federal procurement for research projects and deployment
advocacy, which is funded through the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Joint
Project Office (JPO) of the FHWA.
It is anticipated that components of the prototype MDSS developed by this project will be
enhanced, integrated with other operational components, and deployed by road operating
agencies, including State Departments of Transportation (DOTs), and generally supplied
by commercial weather service providers.
Four national research centers have participated in the development of the prototype
MDSS in 2003-2004. The participating national labs include:
Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL)
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Lincoln Laboratory (MIT/LL)
NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory (FSL)
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