The Horus Fully Digital Phased Array Weather Radar – Current Status and Roadmap for Future Capabilities

Phased array radars (PAR) hold promise for future of weather observations, especially for rapidly evolving and spatially complex severe storms. With support from the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, the Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC) at the University of Oklahoma (OU) developed the Horus fully digital PAR shown in the figure below. This polarimetric S-band PAR became operational in 2023 and is now used routinely for weather and engineering studies. Since the initial promising measurements, Horus capabilities have gradually and systematically been improved. These long-term activities for capabilities enhancements are on-going with a focus on new and improved scan strategies (e.g., multiple transmit beams, imaging), data quality (e.g., automatic calibration), and signal processing (e.g., adaptive beamforming, waveform design).

This presentation will provide an update on the status of the Horus PAR along with the latest results from extensive field observations. A glimpse into future capabilities will be provided by presenting a technology roadmap with a focus on planned software upgrades that are intended to meet the diverse needs to the meteorological community.

Figure 1: Photograph of the Horus phased array radar during recent field deployments near Norman, Oklahoma.