Public View - Interagency Remote Automatic Weather Stations (RAWS)

Remote Automatic Weather Stations (RAWS) There are nearly 2,200 interagency Remote Automatic Weather Stations (RAWS) strategically located throughout the United States. RAWS are self-contained, portable, and permanent, solar powered weather stations that provide timely local weather data used primarily in fire management. These stations monitor the weather and provide weather data that assists land management agencies with a variety of projects such as monitoring air quality, rating fire danger, and providing information for research applications. Most of the stations owned by the wildland fire agencies are placed in locations where they can monitor fire danger. RAWS units collect, store, and forward data to a computer system at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) in Boise, Idaho, via the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES). The GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The data is automatically forwarded to several other computer systems including the Weather Information Management System (WIMS) and the Western Regional Climate Center (WRCC) in Reno, Nevada. Fire managers use this data to predict fire behavior and monitor fuels; resource managers use the data to monitor environmental conditions. Locations of RAWS stations can be searched online courtesy of the Western Regional Climate Center. Facts about RAWS: Weather data collected by RAWS, such as relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, fuel moisture and temperature, rain, and solar radiation are critical to predicting fire behavior, which is imperative to effective fire management of all kinds (suppression, prescribed burning, AMR, etc.). The BLM Remote Sensing Unit maintains about 1,700 RAWS units annually. Stations run on a 12-volt battery combined with a 20-watt solar panel. RAWS units costs approximately $18,000 to purchase. The program has 75 portable units, Incident Remote Automatic Weather Stations (IRAWS) that can be deployed to any incident to augment on-site forecasts. IRAWS can be tone activated, meaning a firefighter can key a tone on their handheld radio to hear current weather data. Learn more about RAWS here...远程自动气象站（Remote Automatic Weather Stations，RAWS）：全美范围内共科学布设近2200个跨部门远程自动气象站，站点选址兼顾全域覆盖与应用需求。该类气象站为集成化设计，兼具便携部署与永久固定两种形态，由太阳能供电，可实时采集本地气象数据，核心应用场景为火情管理。此类站点可实时监测气象状况并输出观测数据，助力土地管理机构开展多项工作，包括空气质量监测、火情风险等级评定，以及为科研项目提供数据支持。多数由野外消防机构管理的站点均选址于可精准监测火情风险的区域。RAWS设备可采集、存储观测数据，并通过地球静止轨道环境业务卫星（Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite，GOES）将数据转发至位于爱达荷州博伊西市的国家跨部门消防中心（National Interagency Fire Center，NIFC）的计算机系统。该卫星由美国国家海洋和大气管理局（National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration，NOAA）运营。采集到的数据会自动转发至其他多个计算机系统，包括气象信息管理系统（Weather Information Management System，WIMS）以及位于内华达州里诺市的西部区域气候中心（Western Regional Climate Center，WRCC）。消防管理人员可依托该数据预测火情态势、监测可燃物状况；资源管理人员则利用该数据监测环境状态。用户可通过西部区域气候中心提供的在线服务查询RAWS站点的分布位置。RAWS核心详情：RAWS采集的气象数据涵盖相对湿度、风速、风向、气温、可燃物含水率与温度、降雨量以及太阳辐射量，此类数据对于精准预测火情态势至关重要，而火情态势预测是各类高效火情管理工作（包括灭火行动、计划火烧、区域管理限制等）的核心支撑。美国土地管理局（Bureau of Land Management，BLM）遥感部门每年维护约1700台RAWS设备。各站点采用12伏特蓄电池搭配20瓦太阳能板供电。单台RAWS设备的采购成本约为18000美元。该项目配备75台便携型事件远程自动气象站（Incident Remote Automatic Weather Stations，IRAWS），可部署至任意灾害现场以强化现场气象预报能力。IRAWS支持语音触发功能：消防人员可通过手持电台触发特定音调，即可收听实时气象数据。欲了解更多RAWS相关信息，请访问此处……