Phased Array Radar

[Mike Thalman]

I believe they are experimenting with it in Norman. I know that it can scan a particular storm of interest instead of scanning the whole 360. I was curious if anyone knows if the resolution is greater than the current wsr-88? And if there are any examples of storms scans out there that have been done with a phased array radar.

 

[Jeff Snyder]

NSSL is currently testing a phased array radar system in Norman, as you noted. Some conference preprints that contain some images can be viewed at http://www.nssl.noaa.gov/projects/pardemo/ ... You can sometimes view CURRENT images from the PAR (and the TDWR, which is excellent) at http://wdssii.nssl.noaa.gov/web/wdss2/products/radar/nwrtktlx.shtml ... The PAR isn't always operating, so it'll be a little "hit or miss" on that page.

Our research group (i.e. Howie Bluestein and students) just got more data back from the MWR-05XP (a mobile phased array radar developed primarily by the Naval Postgraduate School and ProSensing) that were collected last spring, which includes one of the most impressive BWERs (actually, a "bounded no echo region") I've seen (31 May 07 Guymon HP supercell). The MWR-05XP combines a very fast rotational speed with phased array technology to accomplish 2-second PPIs. This means that the MWR-05XP can make collect 360-degrees of data at 15 elevation angles approximately every 30 seconds. So, expect to see more PAR-collected data in the coming couple of years.

It's worth noting that a single PAR "plate" can technically scan very near 180 degrees of the sky. However, the larger the angle between the plate normal and the directed scan, the worse the data will be (smaller effective antenna size, etc). So, I think most scanning strategies call for about 60-90 degrees of "scanned" area (plate normal +/- 30-45 degrees). Regardless, the MPAR and the MWR-05XP still rotate the phased array plate to accomplish full PPIs. A completely stationary, 360-degree PAR system would likely require 4 phased array plates, which makes such a system very expensive.