NOAA’s Radar Next Requirements Development and User Engagement Process

The current NOAA/NWS weather surveillance Doppler radar system, NEXRAD, was deployed from 1992-1997. This national network of radars has revolutionized the ability of weather forecasters to understand the severe storm environment and quickly make accurate forecasts of hazardous weather. During the past quarter century, the NEXRAD program has executed a continuous program of modifications, retrofits, technology refreshments, and pre-planned product improvement upgrades with the aim to avoid obsolescence, improve data quality, meet new mission requirements, improve system maintainability and reliability, and control operations and maintenance (O&M) costs. Even with the current service life extension program, we must continue with recurring sustaining engineering upgrades to address radar component obsolescence, degradation of towers and other infrastructure, and the implementation of significant new capabilities. Because of the challenges posed by obsolescence in the current system and the advancement of new technologies, in 2023, the NWS Office of Observations started the process of an analysis of alternatives to inform the decision for the next generation of Doppler weather radars.

As an early part of that effort, the Radar Next Program will first define a set of “Observation Objectives” that provides the full scope of validated, technically realizable, Doppler weather radar user needs without regard to resources or implementation. As such, the objectives associated with each observational requirement could become targets for future radar system requirements, if funding was available to perform those measurements. To do this, the Radar Next Program will conduct a thorough search of existing documented requirements (e.g., NEXRAD requirements documents, NOAA requirements databases, etc.), and will engage the user community to fully understand the scope and depth of user needs. NOAA anticipates conducting a series of user engagement sessions, radar workshops, user interviews, and an assessment of current and future products. We also seek to understand the value of the current radar network to the nation and what additional capabilities will cost-effectively increase that value. The authors will discuss the methodology for collecting and analyzing requirements for Radar Next and outline a plan for estimating the value of the next generation radar system.