T. Clark, A. Mehta, J. Schultz, C. Gilbert, D. Hoffman, and G. Seacrest
NOAA / NWS / Office of Observations
Abstract
The NOAA National Weather Service is in the process of completing a Service Life Extension Program on the NEXRAD (WSR-88D) weather surveillance Doppler radar network. This life extension will keep the overall network operating beyond 2035. Since the radars were deployed (1992-1997), the NEXRAD program has executed a continuous program of modifications, retrofits, technology refreshments, and pre-planned product improvement upgrades. The goal of continual upgrades and modifications was to avoid obsolescence, prevent wholesale replacement, improve data quality, meet new mission requirements, improve system maintainability and reliability, and control operations and maintenance costs. These sustaining engineering and technology refresh investments have paid dividends because the WSR-88D continues to be upgradable, and reliable.
The NEXRAD Radar Operations Center performed a risk evaluation of the major radar sub-systems to determine which would benefit from a service life extension. The analysis indicated that the pedestal, transmitter, shelters, power generators, and receiver/signal processor are the sub-systems that required the most urgent attention. The NEXRAD program considered overall costs, schedules, risks, radar down time, and other technical factors in developing these recommendations. The upgrades to the radars are nearly complete, but this series of upgrades are complimentary to the need to continue to address routine radar component obsolescence, information technology refresh, degradation of radar domes, corrosion of tower structures and other infrastructure, and the ability to implement significant new capabilities.
The authors will discuss the progress of the current Service Life Extension Program and emphasize the primary items upgraded or sustained during this activity. They will also discuss the risks of ongoing WSR-88D capability sustainment and maintenance of the now thirty-year-old system and the need to start planning for the next generation radar system.
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