New system to prevent fog-related accidents

Road accidents due to low visibility can now be expected to reduce with the Dubai Municipality setting up fog and meteorological stations across the emirate which would forewarn about fog density in the emirate and also in the region. The civic body has launched 14 Fog and Meteorological Stations across Dubai which provide information on the density of fog, along with weather and humidity. "The information will be used by government departments, the first one being Dubai Police and Coastal Guards. It will help them take appropriate action in case of low visibility and fog and warn drivers about fog conditions so as to prevent road accidents," Mohammad Mashroom, Director, Survey Department of Dubai Municipality, told Gulf News. The municipality has already started providing data to Dubai Police and Coastal Guards. Article continues below "Drivers will get regular updates on visibility and fog through various modes of communication like radio and television," he said. These stations would provide vital data about visibility on Dubai's roads and facilitate advance warning in event of a likelihood of fog in the emirate and across the region. These stations measure meteorological parameters as well as soil temperature and humidity at three different depths. The eight roadside stations are located on all the major traffic routes across the emirate including Emirates Road, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai-Al Ain Road, Hatta Road and Dubai Bypass Road. The data from roadside stations is supplemented by meteorological data from coastal stations. Mashroom said these stations are inter-connected and the data collected would go to the main server in Dubai Municipality from where it would be transmitted to its users like Dubai Police and Coast Guards. "The stations cover all major traffic routes and we may increase the number in future, depending on the requirement to provide a more dense monitoring grid," he said. Explaining the functioning of the Visibility Modelling and Forecasting System, Sachin Chauhan, Project Coordinator, said it comprises a central data collection system and database. The data is collected from different sources, including global forecasts (from WMO), satellite (EUMETSAT), airport meteorological services (DXB) and most importantly the Dubai Municipality Survey department's own stations (AWS). Central database All the collected data is stored in a central database and a separate server uses this data as input to continuously run a fog forecasting model named PAFOG. If a high risk of fog is forecast, a warning is displayed on the system's interface and warning messages are sent out by SMS and email. A warning is typically issued already several hours before the occurrence, he explained.