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Items 2007 NSSL scores cover article in BAMS
“CRAFT - Putting Doppler radar in your hands” was the cover article of the July, 2007 issue of the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. The article, lead-authored by NOAA NSSL’s Kevin Kelleher features a compelling cover photo of a national mosaic of Doppler radar images held in the hands of a user.
Project CRAFT (Collaborative Radar Acquisition Field Test) is a multi-institution collaboration that created a real-time delivery system for NEXRAD level II data via the Internet. The collection of federal and state government, university, and private sector entities were driven by the need for full-volume, full-precision level II data for scientific research, training, operations support, and algorithm development, in addition to archiving capabilities. The team included NOAA NSSL, NOAA SPC, NOAA WSR-88D ROC and NOAA NCDC in addition to the University of Oklahoma SOM and CAPS, and UCAR.
The team was able to use open source software and existing networking technology (the Internet, Internet2, and Abilene) to accomplish their goal. By February, 2003, CRAFT had demonstrated that WSR-88D level II data could be delivered to virtually any user at a low cost without loss of information content, using existing software and telecommunications infrastructures for WSR-88D radar sites.
The NOAA group transferred the successful CRAFT prototype to operations and received the 2004 NOAA Technology Transfer Award for their accomplishment.
Today, the NWS’s CRAFT-like operational data distribution system represents a unique source of information for future research in data mining, digital libraries, and distributed storage technology. The architecture provides for not only the expansion to larger datasets via enhancements to the existing WSR-88D’s, but to possibly include super resolution WSR-88D data, dual-polarization capability, and the future inclusion of other radars such as the Terminal Doppler Weather Radar data from the FAA, the National Weather Radar Testbed Phased Array Radar, the low elevation scanning radars proposed by the Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere Project, and even Canadian and Mexican weather radars or television station radar data.
Project CRAFT is truly a collaborative effort among numerous institutions and the outstanding collegiality of all involved is without question the reason for its success.
Outcome: CRAFT supports the goals to develop data acquisition, management, analysis, and display systems; and supports the general goal to ensure climate science is used for informed decision making.
8/13/07