Here’s an innovative use of fiber from Broadband Communities Magazine. Using fiber to improve weather forecasting through Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA)…

As Zink explains, NEXRAD is the most advanced operational weather detection system in the world, but it is challenged in detecting low-altitude features of severe storms. NEXRAD uses 160 weather radars, each with a range of about 240 kilometers. Because radar beams travel in straight lines and Earth curves, the altitude of a beam increases the farther it travels from the radar. For this reason, NEXRAD cannot measure wind velocity in about 70 percent of the atmosphere below an altitude of 1 kilometer.

CASA, in contrast, uses clusters of three to eight radar devices mounted closer to ground level, each with a range of 40 km. The beams from each device overlap with beams from other devices, and all readings are sent over fiber connections to a control node that analyzes the data to determine wind direction and velocity. Based on this analysis, the control node also can redirect the radar to follow a tornado or other severe weather condition.

“Because of the control loop, we get updated information every one minute,” observes Zink. “With fast-moving events, that can be essential.”

In comparison, NEXRAD provides updates every five minutes – and in the case of the 2011 Oklahoma tornado, the four minutes that CASA saved may have been critical.