Hot Items 2003Meetings focus on future of weather radar technology
Two groups focused on the future of weather radar technology met recently at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla. The simultaneous meetings allowed scientists from the two programs to get together and discuss their work, said James Kimpel, NSSL Director.
The two groups represent two approaches to the question, "What's beyond NEXRAD?" The two types of technology being developed take very different approaches to answer that question, resulting in programs that are complimentary, Kimpel said.
The Phased Array Radar Consortium met in Norman to review contracts and tour the recently completed National Weather Radar Testbed facility. In addition to NSSL, participants include NOAA Radar Operations Center, Federal Aviation Administration, Lockheed Martin, U.S. Navy, Basic Commerce and Industries, University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
Researchers are adapting phased array radar technology, developed for the Navy to support tactical operations at sea, to weather detection and modeling. Using electronically controlled beams, phased array radar scans the atmosphere faster than current systems, producing rapid updates of weather data.
The National Severe Storms Laboratory is also a partner in the development of ground-breaking new sensing technology at the heart of the new Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere or CASA. The main partners in CASA are the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the University of Oklahoma.
CASA will develop low-cost, dense networks of radars that operate at short range, communicate with one another and adjust their sensing strategies in direct response to the evolving weather and changing user needs. These radars are just three-feet by three-feet with electronics that are about the size of a personal computer, and can be placed on existing cellular towers.
Phased array radar is similar to current high-power, long-range radars in its limited ability to observe the lower part of the atmosphere because of the Earth's curvature. This hinders the radar's ability to detect the full vertical rotation of most tornadoes.
Kimpel said he believes data from these two very different systems can be combined automatically by computers to produce a full and accurate picture of the atmosphere for forecasters.
"The current strategy is for the smaller, adaptive scan radar networks to focus on the lowest three kilometers of the atmosphere to solve the Earth curvature problem, while the larger radars, NEXRAD and phased array, will perform their traditional role of scanning above 3k," Kimpel said. "Ultimately, we will all benefit from earlier and more accurate warnings of tornadoes and other hazardous weather."
Two groups focused on the future of weather radar technology met recently at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla. The simultaneous meetings allowed scientists from the two programs to get together and discuss their work, said James Kimpel, NSSL Director.
The two groups represent two approaches to the question, "What's beyond NEXRAD?" The two types of technology being developed take very different approaches to answer that question, resulting in programs that are complimentary, Kimpel said.
The Phased Array Radar Consortium met in Norman to review contracts and tour the recently completed National Weather Radar Testbed facility. In addition to NSSL, participants include NOAA Radar Operations Center, Federal Aviation Administration, Lockheed Martin, U.S. Navy, Basic Commerce and Industries, University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
Researchers are adapting phased array radar technology, developed for the Navy to support tactical operations at sea, to weather detection and modeling. Using electronically controlled beams, phased array radar scans the atmosphere faster than current systems, producing rapid updates of weather data.
The National Severe Storms Laboratory is also a partner in the development of ground-breaking new sensing technology at the heart of the new Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere or CASA. The main partners in CASA are the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and the University of Oklahoma.
CASA will develop low-cost, dense networks of radars that operate at short range, communicate with one another and adjust their sensing strategies in direct response to the evolving weather and changing user needs. These radars are just three-feet by three-feet with electronics that are about the size of a personal computer, and can be placed on existing cellular towers.
Phased array radar is similar to current high-power, long-range radars in its limited ability to observe the lower part of the atmosphere because of the Earth's curvature. This hinders the radar's ability to detect the full vertical rotation of most tornadoes.
Kimpel said he believes data from these two very different systems can be combined automatically by computers to produce a full and accurate picture of the atmosphere for forecasters.
"The current strategy is for the smaller, adaptive scan radar networks to focus on the lowest three kilometers of the atmosphere to solve the Earth curvature problem, while the larger radars, NEXRAD and phased array, will perform their traditional role of scanning above 3k," Kimpel said. "Ultimately, we will all benefit from earlier and more accurate warnings of tornadoes and other hazardous weather."
11/07/2003