Weather Radar Goes Miniature

quackking writes "As reported today in the Boston Globe, the NSF has committed at least $17M to build out a new network of miniature (at least in comparison with today's monsters) weather radars. This is to radar what Beowulf clusters are to the mainframe; the scientists at U Mass Amherst project that eventually a weather radar node will be deployable for under $20K! Now to figure out how to get real-time access to this mesh of sensors and create a really cool screensaver..."

Comments

Really cool!?

[antic]

Err, if you want a really cool screensaver, look out a window -- wind effects, sky, clouds -- all in real-time. Amazing, and not $17m!

Re:Weather Sensor Array

[TopShelf]

That's a great idea - but what about adding RFID sensors and face-recognition technology?

Sincerely,
John Ashcroft

Re:MOD THEM DOWN

[warpSpeed]

Oh, God! 10 comments and ALL 10 are silly jokes about Beowulf clusters. If we need a Beowulf cluster then that would be to scan /. traffic and filter such stupid jokes out.

Can we at least install on /. some neural-network scanners that would mod all such obsolete jokes down?

Perhaps a perl plugin module where you can upload your own filter code to prescan the comments....
/. would probably need a cluster of some sort to run it though...

Re:Availability

[another_henry]

Let's also hope that bold text becomes more publicised and widely overused by all.

Not in Boulder, CO

[Greyfox]

They've been using the same stock image for Boulder since 1975. That's because the weather never actually changes here. Even when it's "raining" the cloud cover is too thin for radar to actually pick up. The replaced the weather radar with a cardboard mock-up years ago and no one's ever noticed.