Spatial Analytics for Enhancing Mobile Radar Deployment

Accurate radar observations are critical to improving our understanding and forecasting life-threatening and economically impactful severe weather events. Mobile radars have proven effective in improving the modeling and conceptual understanding of severe weather events by offering observations with high spatial and temporal resolution. A key issue about mobile radar observations that has been overlooked is where to deploy the mobile radar vehicles. Even though the scientists conducting the experiment are often knowledgeable about radar functionality and the local environment, they still face significant difficulties in location selection while simultaneously considering the collection of prolonged, usable data for fast-evolving severe weather events and the safety of operators and vehicles. A timely understanding of local environment, encompassing road networks, local terrain, vegetation, buildings, and other obstacles is critical for real-time deployment of mobile radar vehicles. However, in-person assessment on-site requires a lot of manpower and material resources. This work proposes a methodology for selecting deployment locations for mobile radar vehicles based on the use of geographic information systems and spatial optimization. Models are developed and applied to identify good locations to support observation efforts. Application results highlight the utility and insight of mobile radar siting through the use of an integrated spatial analytical framework.