Archive of Spotlight Feature Articles

NOAA Researchers Helping Develop Radar of the Future

By Keli Tarp

Radar technology currently used to support tactical operations aboard Navy ships will soon be adapted for a new purpose – weather detection. This state-of-the-art phased array radar technology may help forecasters of the future provide earlier warnings for tornadoes and other types of severe and hazardous weather. In the next year, a National Weather Radar Testbed will be established at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., providing the meteorological research community with the first phased array radar facility available on a full-time basis.

The phased array radar project will begin a new era in NSSL's leadership in the research and development of future generations of weather radar. However, the NSSL is not working alone. All aspects of this initiative will be carried out in a unique federal, private, state and academic partnership, including the National Weather Service, Lockheed Martin, U.S. Navy, Federal Aviation Administration, Basic Commerce and Industries, Inc. and the University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology and College of Engineering.

The project – from research and development to technology transfer and deployment throughout the U.S. – is expected to take 10 to 15 years with an initial cost of approximately $25 million for the facility in Norman.

"Early tests of this phased array radar system have proved promising," said Doug Forsyth, chief of the National Severe Storms Laboratory's Radar Research and Development Division. "The National Weather Radar Testbed will allow NSSL and other meteorologists to determine if phased array radar will become the next significant technology advancement to improve our nation's weather services."

Norman is already known as the center for weather radar research and development for the nation. Nearly 30 years ago, NSSL was a major participant in the development of Doppler technology that became the heart of the WSR-88D radar, commonly known as NEXRAD. The deployment of a system of 120 NEXRAD radars across the United States became the cornerstone of the modernization of the National Weather Service.

Using electronically controlled beams, phased array radar reduces the scan time of severe weather from five or six minutes for current WSR-88D technology to only one minute, producing quicker updates of data and thereby potentially increasing the average lead time for tornado warnings. It will also be able to re-scan areas of severe weather very quickly, potentially increasing forecasters' warning lead times as storms rapidly transition to severe modes. In addition, the new system will be able to scan the atmosphere with more detail at lower elevations than current radar allows.

The new technology will gather storm information not currently available, such as rapid changes in wind fields, to provide more thorough understanding of storm evolution. Researchers and forecasters can then improve conceptual storm models and use that knowledge to evaluate and improve stormscale computer models.

Construction has already begun in Norman on the radar's infrastructure, Forsyth said, and is expected to be completed next spring in time to begin testing during tornado season in May and June.

More information about phased-array radar is available online at http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/par.

[10/7/02]

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