Title: Maximisation of weather radar network coverage based on accelerated particle swarm optimisation

Authors: Redouane Boudjemaa

Addresses: Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Sciences, University M'Hamed Bougara of Boumerdes, Boumerdes, Algeria

Abstract: This work proposes an approach to the optimal placement of a weather radar network based on an accelerated particle swarm optimisation. Given a finite number of weather radars, a network is produced such that the geographical coverage area of the radars is maximised. By taking into account several constraints such as terrain blockage and radar beam elevation, the problem is formulated into an optimisation process. By transforming the search space into a gridded system, a reduction in the number of possible combinations of radar networks is achieved making the problem manageable in size. Numerical results show a good convergence to an acceptable solutions based on the percentage of area covered. The results obtained by the proposed method were compared to a genetic algorithm-based approach. The proposed approach can serve as an analysis tool for a decision support system to assist meteorologist in the selection of future prime sites for the installation of weather radars.

Keywords: accelerated PSO; particle swarm optimisation; genetic algorithms; optimal placement; weather radar networks; geographical coverage area; terrain blockage; radar beam elevation; decision support systems; DSS; meteorology; site selection; weather radars.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMHEUR.2015.074420

International Journal of Metaheuristics, 2015 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.205 - 219

Received: 06 Dec 2014
Accepted: 02 Sep 2015
Published online: 29 Jan 2016 *

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