Weather

Solar Forecasting

Posted Sat, 04/24/2010 - 3:12am by jfeight
As a freshman this year, I was unaware of the opportunities available to me. Being an Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Space Science student concentrating in meteorology, I was presented the opportunity to be part of a prestigious team as a weather forecaster. While at first the daunting task seemed intimidating, after meeting with the other members my enthusiasm and confidence for the position peaked. The task of relaying accurate solar radiation forecasts was exactly the opportunity I was looking for. Over the past month I have worked on understanding and interpreting weather maps in order to better my understanding of weather patterns. Since taking on the position of a weather forecaster, I am most excited to use my new knowledge of weather systems to put the solar car team in the lead at the upcoming ASC race.

Australian Mock Race - Day 5: A Sunny Drive to the Finish

Posted Sun, 10/04/2009 - 8:47am by Steven Hechtman

After spending the previous day performing tests at the Royal Flying Doctor Service's emergency landing airstrip, we set out this morning for Adelaide and the finish of our Mock Race. Our starting location was approximately 50 km north of Glendambo, leaving us around 670 km (418 mi) from the finish of timing outside Adelaide. We started at 8:00 AM with sunny skies at last--quite a relief after the weather of previous days.

Although we had only a small amount of energy left from the three cloudy days before, along with a threat of more clouds in the afternoon, we were able to cruise at over 90-95 km/hr (56-59 mph) in the morning. Thanks to the forecasts of our meteorologist, Chris McMeeking, we were able to track the clouds well ahead of Infinium. In the afternoon, when we were sure that we would not run into significant cloud cover, we started to cruise near the speed limit of 110 km/hr (69 mph). After three days of miserable weather, it was encouraging to be able to travel closer to race speeds.

We hit our control points in Glendambo and Port Augusta, and finished at the end of timing outside Adelaide with time to spare before the end of the race day. Best of all, we had perfect reliability on the car, with no time on the side of the road! Each of the divisions on our Race Crew truly deserves praise for their part in today's success: Engineering, for ensuring the car was reliable enough to last through the grueling mock race; Strategy, for tracking such unpredictable weather and managing our batteries through the cloudy days; and Operations, for keeping our whole team going through five long days and four nights in the Outback's ever-changing conditions.

With exactly three weeks until the Global Green Challenge starts, we have readied Infinium and ourselves for the trials of the Outback and will now turn our focus to the final details of our race preparations.

-Steve Hechtman, Race Manager

Australian Mock Race - Day 2: Morning Rain

Posted Wed, 09/30/2009 - 6:17pm by Steven Hechtman

With our race day starting in 30 minutes, there are still clouds in the sky, though rain that moved in overnight has let up for now. We don't expect too much rain today, but there should be clouds all the way to our next stop, Glendambo. The weather vehicle we are in is rolling out now, so this is all for our brief update!

Mock Race Day 4: Update from the Weather Vehicle

Posted Thu, 07/23/2009 - 1:29pm by Steven Hechtman

After escaping some early morning fog, the team has made good pace down the road. We left LeRoy, Illinois in the morning and have already reached our control stops in Bloomington, Illinois, and Kankakee, Illinois. We pulled in to the stop in Kankakee just before 1:00 PM EDT and hope to make it to South Bend by the end of the race day at 5:00 PM EDT. Of course, we hope that the home of the Fighting Irish (Notre Dame) will treat us well despite the fact that we are wearing the colors of one of their biggest football rivals!

Update: We have ended the day in South Bend, Indiana, one block to the west of the Notre Dame campus, and only a few miles west of our control stop. We will spend the night in South Bend before leaving for our next stop in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Mock Race Update: Day 3

Posted Wed, 07/22/2009 - 10:40pm by Steven Hechtman

After an abbreviated race day, the team is now in LeRoy Illinois, between our checkpoints of Effingham, IL and Bloomington, IL. In the morning, the team opted to start the day late for strategic reasons, then took advantage of the early afternoon to perform modifications and maintenance on the suspension and motor.

We set out from Effingham at 2:30 PM, but were met with cloudy skies and scattered showers. However, we were able to navigate the showers thanks to our Meteorologist, Chris McMeeking. On Tuesday afternoon, heading into Effingham, we managed to dodge storms on our way into the checkpoint:


The team dodges storms on its way into Effingham, IL (represented by the red dot on the map)

Tomorrow we will leave for Bloomington, IL with a careful eye on the weather. We hope to avoid any further rain while crossing back into Indiana and Michigan.