A group of U.S. universities is participating in devising technology to more accurately predict and track weather events such as hurricanes.
The Linked Environments Atmospheric Discovery project seeks to create a high-speed computing network infrastructure to help meteorologists issue more timely and accurate forecasts of hurricanes, tornadoes and other dangerous weather conditions.
The national effort seeks to build a "faster-than-real time" system that could save lives, help the public take cover and assist officials in preparing for looming natural disasters, researchers said.
LEAD is funded by an $11 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Indiana University, one of the participants, recently received an additional $2 million NSF grant for its TeraGrid project — an advanced national computing network to allow scientists across the nation to share data as well as pooling and analyzing data received from other sources such as satellites, commercial pilots and NEXRAD, a network of 130 radars.
Other institutions involved in the project include the University of Oklahoma, Howard University, Colorado State University, Millersville University, the University of Alabama, the University of Illinois, the University of North Carolina and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research-Unidata Program.
