Camera Network for Use in Weather Operations, Research and Education

Camera technology has evolved rapidly over the last decade; photo quality continues to improve while cameras are getting smaller, more rugged, and cheaper. One outcome of this technological progress is that cameras can now be deployed remotely at low-cost wherever solar power and wireless communication are available. While numerous camera networks are deployed nationwide to survey traffic conditions and monitor local security, the adoption of cameras as a weather observing tool is relatively new. The New York State Mesonet (NYSM) is a network of 126 weather stations deployed across the state of New York, collecting, archiving and disseminating a suite of atmospheric and soil variables every 5 minutes. One unique feature of the NYSM is that every station is equipped with a camera. Still images are collected every 5 minutes coincident with the standard environmental data during daylight hours, and hourly during the overnight hours. Since installation of the first station in 2015, the camera network has proven to be an essential element of information gathering, a critical data source for the forecast and emergency management communities, and a unique teaching resource of pictorial and visualized learning for kindergarten through high school (K-12) education. More specifically, the camera network supports (1) weather operations, (2) commercial applications, (3) data quality control, (4) site metadata, (5) site security, and (6) research and (7) educational opportunities. This article will review the many benefits, some challenges, and the future functional applications of cameras as part of an observation network. A strong case is made for making cameras an essential component of every weather station.