Building An Open, Flexible, Online Radar Meteorology Course

The field of radar meteorology is rapidly evolving, and with it the need for updated and flexible educational materials accessible to the world. The inherently data-rich and four-dimensional nature of radar data requires a departure from basic textbooks and two-dimensional displays as means of learning. Additionally, radar meteorology instructors desire open educational materials on a wide range of topics to accelerate their course development. In response to these needs, the authors are creating a new, asynchronous, fully online Radar Meteorology course to be hosted on UCAR COMET MetEd’s web site. When complete, this course will comprise nine lessons covering basic to advanced aspects of radar meteorology, with the potential for extension as new and novel radar technologies become available. Topics to be covered include dual polarized radar, data quality, and derived products.

Accessibility has been a key focus for the authors. For example, the course incorporates color vision deficiency-friendly color maps in its visualizations, and low- and high-bandwidth versions of some animated and/or interactive elements. One particularly novel aspect of this course is the integration of virtual reality (VR) elements, which allow learners to immerse themselves in the 3D structure of the radar data. Some of the VR elements were tested with Purdue radar meteorology students in Spring 2024, with reaction overwhelmingly positive. For example, all participants agreed with the statement, “The VR display helped me visualize or understand the spatial relationships between different parts of a storm.”

In this presentation, the authors will showcase the first of the nine modules, “Dual Pol Radar Fundamentals,’’ as well as demonstrate some of the VR elements under development.