Comparison of storm evolution characteristics: The NWRT and WSR-88D

The National Weather Research Testbed (NWRT), located in Norman, Oklahoma at the National Severe Storms Laboratory, began collecting data with the Phased Array Radar (PAR) in spring of 2003. Until recently, these data were used mostly to address engineering issues. During the late spring of 2006 the stability of the NWRT PAR was sufficient to allow the collection of data on several storm events. A key advantage of the NWRT is the capability to adaptively scan storms at higher temporal resolution than is possible by the WSR-88D (1 min or less vs 5 min, respectively). Benefits of faster scanning of convective storms include better understanding of storm dynamics and initiation, better detection of small-scale phenomena, and increased lead time for warnings, to name a few. This paper marks the beginning of a series of studies that seek to improve understanding of the evolution of small-scale phenomena, like tornadoes and microbursts, as well as the development of convective storm structure. A first step toward this goal is comparative analysis of the evolution of convective storm structure for single cells, multicells, supercells, and line segments using rapid-scanning reflectivity and velocity data collected by the NWRT and conventional reflectivity data collected by the nearby WSR-88D (KTLX) during May and June 2006. The analysis will focus on features associated with storm initiation, growth, and decay, including mergers and hail cores. Results of this analysis will be reported in the extended abstract.