Brilliant performance of the Observatory's Airport Thunderstorm and Lightning Alerting System
The new Airport Thunderstorm and Lightning Alerting System (ATLAS) developed by the Hong Kong Observatory together with the lightning warning system, which had been operated by the Airport Authority Hong Kong in the past few years, were put into parallel operation early last year. The new system monitors lightning activity in and around the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) and issues Red or Amber lightning alerts automatically. It also disseminates graphic and textual alert messages to the Airport Authority to trigger the warning lights and sirens over the airport area. After a full year operation, ATLAS's performance was brilliant and proven to be superior to the old lightning warning system in terms of higher hit rate, lower false alarm rate and shorter alert duration. As such, the Airport Authority decided to decommission the old system and adopt ATLAS for issuing the lightning warnings at HKIA from February this year. |
Figure 1 Dr. K.K. Yeung of the Hong Kong Observatory (2nd to the right) and ATLAS R&D team received the ICT Best Public Service Application (Small Scale Project) Silver Award during the Award Ceremony held in February 2009. |