History of the Oklahoma City Micronet
During a six-week period in June and July 2003, over 200 scientists and staff from around the world converged on Oklahoma City and conducted the largest-ever urban dispersion field experiment: the Joint Urban 2003 field experiment (JU2003). Included among the JU2003 team were scientists and students from the Oklahoma Climatological Survey at the University of Oklahoma who assisted in the collection of atmospheric observations from temporary stations installed across Oklahoma City. It was during and immediately following JU2003 that a vision was drafted to design and deploy a permanent, automated atmospheric observing network across Oklahoma City.
In 2005, $250,000 was awarded to the Oklahoma City Micronet project via a state capital bond issue sponsoring infrastructure improvements at the University of Oklahoma. The funds were pivotal in providing the resources needed to purchase the hardware (sensors, dataloggers, etc.) for the network. In addition, the University of Oklahoma contributed $350,000 in 2006 to support the costs associated with the deployment and data collection activities of the network.
With the available funding in place, the Oklahoma City Micronet began the process of deploying stations throughout the metropolitan area. The first phase consisted of the installation of three new Oklahoma Mesonet sites within Oklahoma City in early 2007 (the Spencer Mesonet site was previously installed within the borders of far northeast Oklahoma City in 1994).
Following the deployment of the Mesonet stations, attention was focused on additional stations installed on traffic signals. With the assistance of various departments within the City of Oklahoma City, the design and testing of the traffic light stations was completed throughout 2007. In December 2007, the prototype traffic signal station was deployed at the intersection of West Main Street and North Walker Avenue for additional testing and analysis. Throughout early 2008, additional refinements were completed to the station design and in May 2008, the remaining 35 traffic signal stations were installed.
The completion of the 40-station Oklahoma City Micronet (36 traffic signal sites plus 4 Oklahoma Mesonet sites) represents a significant milestone in the history of weather data collection in metropolitan areas and is unique anywhere in the world in terms of rapid data collection, data quality assurance, and data provided to a variety of customs and end users.
