Fine-Scale Road Stretch Forecasting: Applications of High Resolution Terrain and Thermal Mapping Data

The system, which can provide operational forecasts of the road surface temperature, air temperature and dew point temperature for any road stretch in Denmark, has been developed, tested and verified. Detailed local characteristics influencing shadowing effects for road stretches were obtained from the high resolution Danish databases on terrain, obstacles, height, land-use, etc. The thermal mapping data taken during road winter seasons of 2008-2011 were used for verification. It was found that the forecast quality for the road stretches was comparable to the forecast quality for the road stations.