Vaisala's Innovative Roads Observations Change the Game

Every day, intelligent transportation systems (ITS) help bring travelers safely to their destination, from airport runways to highways and railways.

Vaisala is launching an entirely new Road Weather Station known as the RWS200. Combined with our RoadDSS(TM) Software suite, Vaisala is able to offer a revolutionary total intelligent Road Weather Information System called iRWIS. The system consists of intelligent roadside hardware making its own decisions, and sophisticated decision support software, and improved measurement reliability.

Weather impacts road transportation throughout the year caused by different phenomena such as snow and ice, heavy rains, fog, high winds, and sand storms. Traditional road weather observation systems are designed to conduct measurements on prevailing road, rail or runway surface conditions and transmit data messages. The iRWIS offers an intelligent solution, from improved accuracy to network management and up-to-the-minute maintenance information of the entire monitoring network.

Road weather stations can consist of a variety of sensors to collect atmospheric information and data on road conditions depending on the user's needs. The key component to Vaisala road weather solutions is the Road Weather Station RWS200, which has been designed with the future of road weather and ITS in mind. The RWS200 processor contains several sophisticated algorithms that bring in raw data from the pavement sensor, and by using other atmospheric information, can create better calculations of surface conditions. The RWS200 is also equipped with its own battery and includes smart power management to ensure reliable data collection even when power supply becomes unstable. Finally, the RWS200 utilizes state-of-the-art sensors that are accurate and reliable in the most demanding weather conditions. These all help to improve decision-making and reduce costs, while offering greater operational efficiency.

The new system is flexible, from the scalable software solutions to RWS200 allowing customers to deploy exactly the hardware they need. When providing uninterrupted, real-time data to support 24/7 road maintenance operations reliability is critical, Vaisala has decades of experience producing reliable weather solutions.

Making decisions about the weather is an important part of a road authority's job, and knowing exactly what is going on with the roadway, now and in the future, is key. Vaisala RoadDSS is a suite of software solutions, offered by Vaisala cloud services, giving you a resilient method of display and storage, ensuring access to your information anytime, anywhere. Each software solution is tiered to meet the needs of the agency.

"We are excited to offer our customers the latest industry leading road weather technology," says Antero Järvinen, Director of Vaisala Road and Rail Business. "iRWIS is all about providing end-to-end solutions that are intelligent, flexible, and reliable, so that our customers can keep their roads moving smoothly through any weather condition."

For more information, please contact:

Antero Järvinen, Director, Vaisala Road and Rail
Phone: +1 (303) 402-4751
Email: antero.jarvinen@vaisala.com

Jon Tarleton, Senior Marketing Manager
Phone: +1 (314) 872-0509
Email: jon.tarleton@vaisala.com

Vaisala Road and Rail
The national and regional road authorities ensure safe and smooth traffic management and maintenance operations. Vaisala Road and Rail helps them to improve mobility and safety by measuring, forecasting and integrating environmental observations to support operational efficiency, and optimized decision-making.

About Vaisala
Vaisala is a global leader in environmental and industrial measurement. Building on 78 years of experience, Vaisala contributes to a better quality of life by providing a comprehensive range of innovative observation and measurement products and services for chosen weather-related and industrial markets. Headquartered in Finland, Vaisala employs approximately 1500 professionals worldwide and is listed on the Nasdaq OMX Helsinki stock exchange. www.vaisala.com  www.twitter.com/VaisalaGroup