Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA)

我们监控、预测和应对不断变化的环境和事件的能力变得越来越重要，尤其是在我们的物理环境方面。在大气环境中，这种能力对社会来说最为重要，其实际实施所面临的挑战也最为严峻。在大气环境中，雷暴、龙卷风、微爆、暴风雪、洪水以及飘散的放射性、化学和生物制剂等危险的局部天气，可以在几分钟或几小时内摧毁或污染大片地区的生命和财产。然而，大气中包含大部分自然和人为危害的部分——对流层下层，特别是大气边界层——在今天的传感技术下，采样严重不足。我们的ERC提出了一种革命性的新范式，在这种范式中，分布式、协作和自适应传感（DCAS）网络的转换系统被部署，以克服当前方法的根本局限性。在这里，分布式是指在整个对流层中使用大量具有高空间和时间分辨率的适当间隔的传感器。这些系统将在动态信息技术基础设施中协同工作，以满足竞争的最终用户需求的方式适应不断变化的条件。这些系统将在灵敏度和分辨率方面取得突破性的进步，从而显著减少龙卷风的误报，极大地改善洪水预测的降水估计，用于机载危险分散预测和其他应用的细尺度风场成像和热力学状态估计。DCAS系统的成功实施将需要符合nsf技术优点评审标准的根本性突破。这些突破将包括跨学科知识的整合和共享；低成本、多波束、固态雷达的设计与制造；创建基于系统的架构来组织感知、计算和通信资源；开发动态定位系统资源的双向终端用户界面；部署综合测试平台，以验证假设并了解紧急系统行为；交联分层数据存储与处理的实现提高了对小尺度大气过程的理解。为了实现这些突破，我们汇集了马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校的顶尖工程和计算机科学专家。他们将与俄克拉何马大学、科罗拉多州立大学和波多黎各大学的科学家和工程师以及包括雷神公司、IBM公司、维萨拉公司以及联邦和州政府机构在内的公司合作，共同创建协同自适应大气传感中心（CASA）。我们将创建可扩展的原型试验台，以展示DCAS的潜力，以彻底改变我们对危险大气现象的理解、检测和预测，最终用户从一开始就参与其中。CASA符合NSF更广泛的影响评估标准，通过全面的教育和外展计划，通过马萨诸塞州强制性的工程/技术课程向K-12学生介绍基于系统的工程，并作为扩大未被代表的群体参与各级工程和科学努力的机制。此外，它将通过提供技术和培训来吸引第一响应者和其他最终用户。CASA将处理天气的观察、预测和响应，这一问题影响到美国国民生产总值的10%到30%。我们的管理结构具有灵活性，可以充分利用我们广泛的合作伙伴关系。例如，CASA将与行业合作伙伴合作，后者将根据我们的新模式创建新的产品线和服务，以感知、分析、预测和响应对流层中的大气危害。

Our ability to monitor, anticipate, and respond to changing circumstances and events is increasinglyimportant, particularly with regard to our physical surroundings. Nowhere is this capability more vital tosociety, or the challenges associated with its practical implementation greater, than in the context of theatmosphere, where hazardous local weather, such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, microbursts, snow storms,and floods as well as lofted radiological, chemical and biological agents can, in a matter of minutes orhours, destroy or contaminate life and property over vast areas. Yet, the portion of the atmosphere thatcontains the bulk of both natural and man-made hazards the lower troposphere and particularly theatmospheric boundary layer is grossly undersampled by today's sensing technologies.Our ERC proposes a revolutionary new paradigm in which transforming systems of distributed,collaborative, and adaptive sensing (DCAS) networks are deployed to overcome fundamentallimitations of current approaches. Here, distributed refers to the use of large numbers ofappropriately spaced sensors capable of high spatial and temporal resolution throughout the entire troposphere.These systems will operate collaboratively within a dynamic information technology infrastructure,adapting to changing conditions in a manner that meets competing end user needs. These systems willachieve breakthrough improvements in sensitivity and resolution leading to significant reductions in tornadofalse alarms, vastly improved precipitation estimates for flood prediction, fine scale wind field imagingand thermodynamic state estimation for use in airborne hazard dispersion prediction and other applications.Successful implementation of DCAS systems will require fundamental breakthroughs consistent with theNSF Technical Merit Review Criteria. Among these breakthroughs will be integration and sharing of knowledgeacross disciplines; design and fabrication of low cost, multi beam, solid state radars; creation of a systemsbased architecture to organize sensing, computing, and communications resources; development oftwoway end user interfaces that dynamically target system resources; deployment of integrative test beds tovalidate assumptions and understand emergent system behavior; implementation of cross linked hierarchicaldata storage and processing; and improved understanding of small scale atmospheric processes.To achieve these breakthroughs, we have assembled leading engineering and computer scienceexperts from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. They will work in partnership with scientists andengineers from the University of Oklahoma, Colorado State University and the University of Puerto Rico,Mayaguez, and corporate partners including Raytheon, IBM, Vaisala, and federal and state governmentagencies to create the Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA). We will createscalable prototype test beds to demonstrate the potential for DCAS to revolutionize our understanding,detection, and prediction of hazardous atmospheric phenomena with end users involved from the outset.CASA meets the NSF Broader Impacts Review Criteria through: comprehensive education and outreachprograms that introduce systems based engineering to K-12 students via the mandated engineering/technology curriculum in Massachusetts, and serves as the mechanism for expanding participation by under represented groups in engineering and scientific endeavors at all levels. Further, it will engage first responders and other end users through the provision of both technology and training. CASA will address the observation, prediction and response of weather, an issue that affects between 10 percent and 30 percent of the U.S. gross national product.Our management structure has the flexibility to take advantage of our broad partnership. For example,CASA will collaborate with industry partners, who, in turn, will create new product lines and servicesbased on our new paradigm for sensing, analyzing, predicting and responding to atmospheric hazards inthe troposphere.