Sunday, 14 November 2004 - 2:35 PM
0023

Site-specific weather data for postmortem analysis

Dennis Calvin, dcalvin@psu.edu1, Ke Chung Kim, kck@psu.edu1, and Joseph Russo2. (1) Pennsylvania State University, Department of Entomology, Ag Sci & Ind Bldg, University Park, PA, (2) ZedX, Inc, 369 Rolling Ridge Dr, Bellefonte, PA

Knowledge of local weather conditions is a necessity in forensic investigations. The spatial variation in local conditions can be significant due to topography, land cover, and adjacent landscape. In nearly all cases, a forensic scientist must rely on distant weather stations as a source of data for local conditions. These data are typically only crudely representative of a particular environmental setting. We will discuss site-specific weather data generated by a service (ZedX, Inc) using surrounding stations and other meteorological measurements as sources of information. This system utilizes different interpolation schemes to simulate data for weather variables important for forensic analysis. In addition to generating local data, the service also provides the uncertainties association with simulated values at different risk levels. The simulated site-specific weather data are compared with real-time weather data at the site in State College, Pennsylvania. The advantage of site-specific weather data is also demonstrated in cases of postmortem analysis of insect development.


Keywords: forensic entomology

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