A NEw, Polarimetric, X-band Teaching and Research Radar (XTRRA) at Purdue Univ.

An X-band, polarimetric Doppler radar (XTRRA) was recently installed near the campus of Purdue University. In collecting detailed observations of weather conditions over northwest Indiana, the XTRRA fills a lower atmospheric observing gap within the WSR-88D network. Potential applications to severe and hazardous weather include the collection of unique, high temporal resolution polarimetric observations in storms, assimilation into a locally-run ensemble forecasting system, and use in road weather studies.

The XTRRA, which was funded entirely by Purdue University, is shared between investigators in the Colleges of Science and Engineering. While it can be used in a wide variety of research applications, atmospheric science students at Purdue will have the opportunity to learn radar meteorology with the aid of this instrument. Graphical radar products are freely available on the internet, increasing public situational awareness of severe weather. Preliminary observations of convective storms around Purdue will be shown and discussed.