Beta's interdisciplinary and collaborative projects
for final year students 2008–2009

General

Automatic determination of atmospheric visibility from real-time images of video cameras

ISCS, CS or CE | 1-2 students | Development+Research project | Laboratory of Meteorological Computing project in collaboration with Hong Kong Observatory under the Cooperative Training Agreement

Description

This is a continuation of the project in 2007–2008 which uses real-time images of video cameras to estimate the atmospheric visibility. Statical methods and relative visibility were studied for the estimation of visibility, and the methodologies can be adapted to other stations after some enhancements. Its integration with visibility meter would hopefully help ensure the quality of the visibility data.

Requirements

Deliverables to collaborator

References

  1. "Educational Resources" section of the HKO website.
  2. FYP web site of the project in 2006–2007.
  3. FYP reports of the project in 2006–2007, available in discussion meeting, please email for appointment.
  4. Q. Chen, W.B. Chen, J. Cheng, Y.M. Huang, J. Shen and Y.B. Wang, 2007
    Automatic determination of atmospheric visibility from real-time images of video cameras
    Report for the Workshop on Industrial Applications
    City University of Hong Kong, December 2006.
  5. William C. Malm, 1999
    Introduction to visibility, Air Resources Division, National Park Service.
  6. Wu, Francis, 2006
    Visibility estimation using edge detection and pixel histogram analysis
    HKO internal report

Total count radioactivity sample screening system

ISCS, CE, or CS | 1 student | Development project | Laboratory of Meteorological Computing project in collaboration with Hong Kong Observatory under the Cooperative Training Agreement

Description

To screen environmental samples for elevated radioactivity during emergency, The Hong Kong Observatory has developed a "total count sample screening system" which reports data based on sodium iodide (NaI) scintillation detectors. The system has been in use since 2000.

Now, the operating system (OS) of the sample screening system has become obsolete. It is planned to develop a replacement system for use on an updated OS platform, as well as for increasing the throughput of the sample screening operation.

The objective of the project is to develop application software for the use of the replacement system.

Requirements

Deliverables to collaborator

References

  1. "Educational Resources" section of the HKO website.

Terrain-induced windshear forecast over Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) using artificial intelligence (AI) methods (Part II)

ISCS, CS or CE | at least 2 students | Research+Development | Laboratory of Meteorological Computing project in collaboration with Hong Kong Observatory under the Cooperative Training Agreement

Description

This project is Part II of a previous project under the same title in 2007–2008. Previously, students have developed two algorithms respectively using decision tree and artificial neural network to demonstrate the feasibility of prediction terrain-induced windshear over HKIA. The current project aims to further enhance the previous algorithms by including additional meteorological parameters, such as thermodynamical stability indices to further improve the accuracy of windshear prediction. More sophisticated AI methods would also be explored as well in this project.

Deliverables to collaborator

References

  1. "Educational Resources" section of the HKO website.
  2. Windshear — Its Detection and Alerting, by PW Li
  3. FYP web site of the project in 2006–2007.
  4. FYP reports of the project in 2006–2007.