A multi-agent system for meteorological radar data management and decision support

The continuous processing and evaluation of meteorological radar data require significant efforts by scientists, both for data processing, storage, and maintenance, and for data interpretation and visualization. To assist meteorologists and to automate a large part of these tasks, we have designed and developed Abacus, a multi-agent system for managing radar data and providing decision support. Abacus' agents undertake data management and visualization tasks, while they are also responsible for extracting statistical indicators and assessing current weather conditions. Abacus agent system identifies potentially hazardous incidents, disseminates preprocessed information over the web, and enables warning services provided via email notifications. in this paper, Abacus' agent architecture is detailed and agent communication for information diffusion is presented. Focus is also given on the customizable logical rule-bases for agent reasoning required in decision support. The platform has been tested with real-world data from the Meteorological Service of Cyprus. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.