ICT to get Dual Pol. radar

[rdale]

Originally Posted by Charles Kuster

Unfortunately, the DP upgrade will not decrease the time needed to obtain a volume scan. The phased-array radars will be able to scan very quickly, but that is still 15-20 years in the future.

On the other hand - there have been proposals for VCP scan strategies in the 2.5-3 minute range with the 88D, but it's been a while since I've heard anything about that. It might be more than the current hardware can handle?

[Greg Stumpf]

Originally Posted by rdale

On the other hand - there have been proposals for VCP scan strategies in the 2.5-3 minute range with the 88D, but it's been a while since I've heard anything about that. It might be more than the current hardware can handle?

This is one way to achieve faster scan updates with a conventional antenna radar: http://www.roc.noaa.gov/wsr88d/NNOW/AVSET.aspx

[Mike Smith]

Greg, this is terrific.

Now the questions:

What is the status of getting this implemented?

Has anyone ever looked at an automatic sector scan function during severe weather? That would also speed things up. For example, if it is May 3, 1999, at 3pm, I doubt anyone cared whether the radar spun the full 360° to see nothing east of KTLX.

One could make the radar do a 360° every 10 minutes or so to see if anything has developed in the non-sampled area, but we would get much more frequent scans in the area of interest.

Mike

[Greg Stumpf]

AVSET has not yet been approved as to my latest information.

The system you describe, using sector scans, is done with CASA where the radars are networked and collaborating. It's also done with the phased-array radar, and since the scanning is electronic, you can have separate maximum elevation scans for each radial. Not sure if the WSR-88D program is considering any of this for their radars. However, any major changes like that would require approval from all three agencies that support the WSR-88D (NWS, DOD, FAA).

Here's another AVSET link: http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/155324.pdf

Originally Posted by Mike Smith

Greg, this is terrific.

Now the questions:

What is the status of getting this implemented?

Has anyone ever looked at an automatic sector scan function during severe weather? That would also speed things up. For example, if it is May 3, 1999, at 3pm, I doubt anyone cared whether the radar spun the full 360° to see nothing east of KTLX.

One could make the radar do a 360° every 10 minutes or so to see if anything has developed in the non-sampled area, but we would get much more frequent scans in the area of interest.

Mike

[Shane Adams]

Originally Posted by Charles Kuster

Unfortunately, the DP upgrade will not decrease the time needed to obtain a volume scan. The phased-array radars will be able to scan very quickly, but that is still 15-20 years in the future.

Ahhhhh yes....my mistake. I was thinking of PA. Thanks for the clarification.

[Jeff Duda]

Originally Posted by Charles Kuster

Unfortunately, the DP upgrade will not decrease the time needed to obtain a volume scan. The phased-array radars will be able to scan very quickly, but that is still 15-20 years in the future.

15 - 20 years??? I was always hearing about how it should be arriving within the next 10. Man I hope it isn't that long before phased array becomes available. I'll be an old man by then!

[Jim Zandonai]

I hope so too ! By then I'll be 'arm chairing' everything
The technology is obviously already there so I assume the major thing that would stretch it out is budget..but I could be wrong. Time will tell.

[rdale]

Originally Posted by Jim Zandonai

The technology is obviously already there so I assume the major thing that would stretch it out is budget

I'd last heard an update about a year ago - the filtering and display of weather data vs. other returns was much more primitive than had been anticipated. That's probably why the schedule isn't going as fast as originally planned.

[rdale]

Originally Posted by Greg Stumpf

AVSET has not yet been approved as to my latest information.

There was a meeting earlier this week where the recommendation was made to have AVSET included in Build 13.

[Jeff Duda]

Resurrecting this thread as new TINs have been released lately regarding the scheduling of the dual-pol upgrades. Looks like there will be some upgrades to super res as well (including increased resolution for the higher tilts if I am understanding it correctly). References:

http://www.roc.noaa.gov/WSR88D/Publi..._super_res.pdf
http://www.roc.noaa.gov/WSR88D/DUALPOL/DPLevelII.aspx