Functions, Advantages and Applications of Visibility Monitoring Station in Traffic Safety Guarantee

Rain and snow make road surfaces slippery, while low temperatures cause ground icing—both pose severe threats to driving safety. Timely and accurate traffic meteorological monitoring services have thus become a key guarantee for the safety of public travel. Currently, professional traffic meteorological observation stations in China are unevenly distributed, and their monitoring of high-impact weather such as heavy fog, patchy fog, and road icing fails to meet actual needs. It is therefore urgent to increase the number and density of stations. Against this backdrop, the Visibility Monitoring Station has emerged as an important application form of integrated traffic meteorological monitors.

1. Working Principle

The Visibility Monitoring Station leverages embedded technology, optical technology, digital electronic technology, and other technologies to integrate multiple sensors in terms of structure and system composition. One of its core functions is to accurately monitor visibility; it can also simultaneously track multiple meteorological and road elements, including air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, road surface conditions (dry, damp, wet, snowy, icy, ice-water mixture, etc.), and road surface temperature. Equipped with a microcontroller unit (MCU), the device integrates multiple sensors and communication methods on the underlying circuit board, making it a new-generation traffic meteorological monitoring device specifically designed for highway traffic scenarios.

2. Monitoring Capabilities

The Visibility Monitoring Station is equipped with various high-precision sensors that enable 24/7 continuous monitoring. In addition to core visibility monitoring, it can track:

Atmospheric visibility

Road surface temperature

Road surface conditions (dry, damp, wet, waterlogged, icy, snowy)

Waterlogging depth, icing depth, snow depth, and slipperiness

It also supports flexible addition or removal of monitoring items (e.g., solar radiation, PM2.5, PM10, noise) and customization based on specific needs.

3. Supporting Platform & Operation Modes

Cloud-based Environmental Monitoring Platform: It offers functions such as data viewing, over-limit early warning, and data storage/export, providing important reference for highway traffic management, construction operations, and disaster prevention.

Power Supply: Supports municipal power supply and solar power supply, enabling "plug-and-play" operation.

Data Transmission: Supports wired and wireless transmission, allowing real-time and stored measurement results to be sent to data terminals via a data bus.

4. Installation & Cost Advantages

The wind direction measurement function automatically calibrates to north, unaffected by installation orientation. Moreover, it does not require the construction of dedicated foundation poles—instead, it can be installed on existing facilities along highways, such as lamp posts, monitoring poles, and gantries. This minimizes additional costs in transportation, installation, and maintenance of highway traffic meteorological stations, helping traffic authorities better supervise road environments and build a digital defense line for urban traffic safety.