GMAO data used by the DOT/Federal Highway Administration
08.22.2016
GMAO reanalysis data have been used in a long-term research study performed by the US Department of Transport.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has used information from the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) reanalysis in their “Long-Term Pavement Performance” (LTPP) program. As a multi-decade research study, the LTPP studies how in-service pavements perform under a variety of factors, one of which is temperature.
A comparative study of MERRA with other temperature information has been published as a Technical Brief by the LTPP project: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/research/infrastructure/pavements/ltpp/15026/
Additionally, the MERRA temperature data have been used in three tools developed and used by the FHWA. These are: a Climate Tool, which includes a set of MERRA data converted to engineering terms, for the entire world; a pavement asphalt binder selection program that uses MERRA as the backbone of its analysis features; a pavement-design-specific application called “MERRA Climate Data for MEPDG Inputs.”
These web-based tools are available to approved users of the FHWA's “InfoPave” online portal.
