The National Severe Storms Laboratory-Climavision CRADA: Progress and future plans

Beginning in 2022, NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) entered into a multi-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with Climavision. The overall objective of the CRADA is to conduct due diligence on Climavision's national fleet of radars and these radars’ impacts on MRMS product performance. Climavision’s X-band radars sample the lowest portions of the atmosphere and are strategically located in parts of the country that lack low-level coverage from the existing NWS network of WSR-88Ds. Currently, NSSL is ingesting base data from Climavision’s network of 26 supplemental weather radars into an experimental version of NSSL’s Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) system and producing reflectivity mosaics that incorporate both the Climavision and WSR-88D radar networks.

This presentation will outline NSSL and Climavision’s joint research activities under the CRADA, including the use of commercial cloud computing providers to establish real-time WSR-88D + Climavision radar mosaic products, technical exchange meetings between Climavision and NSSL researchers and developers, and the use of this hybrid MRMS system as a testbed for exploring new methods of merging and mosaicking radar data. The CRADA also supports MRMS’s ongoing initiative to become volume coverage pattern (VCP) independent and radar manufacturer agnostic. We will explore lessons learned and challenges inherent in merging data from S-band (WSR-88D) radars with data from X-band (Climavision) radars in addition to the limitations of legacy radar data formats. Future CRADA activities include tests of WSR-88D + Climavision radar mosaics in NWP data assimilation via NSSL’s Warn on Forecast System (WoFS). The CRADA has yielded benefits across both NSSL and Climavision with Climavision significantly advancing its data processing and the operation of its radar network, while NSSL has laid the basis for MRMS to fully utilize weather radar data from networks operating at various frequencies and scanning modes. This CRADA is an important example of a public-private partnership that demonstrates how commercial radar data can be integrated into future operational workflows.