Big Data and
Improved Weather Forecasting
Harsh
weather phenomena can leave destructive paths behind that cost money and injure
people. The article highlights the most
recent weather disasters with Typhoon Sanba and Hwangsa dust storms in the Gobi
desert. The Hwangsa storms carry dust
that can be loaded with heavy metals and carcinogens.
South Korea is in the process of updating their
national weather information system. The
update will increase the agency’s data storage capacity by nearly 1000% to 9.3
petabytes, making it Korea’s most capable storage system. IBM provides the
storage hardware and software.
The project illustrates the importance of big data
and its impact on weather forecasting. The growing number of sensors and
satellites coupled with the speed at which data is able to be processed has
made it possible to forecast weather accurately possibly saving lives and
property.
The increased evidence regarding climate change
has forced world leaders to take weather monitoring more seriously.
In New York, scientists tested a new strategy by
set up a 3 dimensional grid of 1000 blocks and ran calculations that zero in
predictions for a specific zone. Using
this strategy, the team was able to make accurate predictions about snow fall
totals around the city. It was also able to predict when it would start and
stop.
Experts agree that the most important part about
weather forecasting is accessibility.
People in the affected regions need to receive important weather information
before its too late. With the rise in
personal computing devices, weather has never been more accessible.
No comments:
Post a Comment