Updating and augmenting weather data for pavement mechanistic-empirical design using ASOS/AWOS database in Michigan
AbstractClimatic files are an important input in the recently released pavement design software Pavement ME Design (PMED). Currently there are 24 climatic files embedded in the PMED for various locations within the state of Michigan, USA. However, the distribution of existing weather stations is not geographically uniform, with noticeable gap regions among these stations. The existing climatic files have only 5 to 9 years of hourly data and have not been updated since 2006. This study aims to add new weather stations to fill the gap regions and to update existing climatic files to the end of the year 2014 using historical climatic data from the Automated Surface/Weather Observation System (ASOS/AWOS). To achieve this goal, the climatic files from other locations in ASOS/AWOS were edited to meet the requirements of the PMED. The new climatic data were compared with existing data in detail to verify the data source consistency. A quantity and quality check was conducted for the new climatic files. Procedure...