A Review of Data Collected in 2024 by the NSSL Advanced Technology Demonstrator Phased Array Radar

Over the past several years, engineers and meteorologists at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) in Norman, OK have been working collaboratively to develop, test, and investigate the operational benefits of phased array radar using the Advanced Technology Demonstrator (ATD); a full-scale, S-band, polarimetric PAR that was developed exclusively for weather observation. In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the data collected in 2024 and discuss initial results of the data analyses. Data collection in 2024 was largely driven by a desire to collect datasets that could both be 1) utilized in the NSSL Hazardous Weather Testbed to elicit feedback from operational forecasters on the advantages/disadvantages of PAR in the warning decision process, and 2) used to investigate scientific hypotheses posed for a variety of rapid scanning strategies, polarimetric signatures, and severe weather hazards. In addition to the high temporal resolution (~1 minute volume update times) of the scans collected in 2024, many of the volume coverage patterns (VCPs) also included range height indicator scans that were interlaced into each VCP. As of late summer, nearly 107 hours of ATD data has been collected for 2024 with more data collection planned for the fall and winter months. In addition, data from engineering tests that allowed for the collection of both spoiled beam and linear depolarization ratio datasets, neither of which are possible with WSR-88D radars that transmit in simultaneous H and V mode, will also be presented and discussed.