A First Look at the Operational (Data Quality) Improvements Provided by the Open Radar Data Acquisition (ORDA) System

The Open Radar Data Acquisition (ORDA) Project continues to progress through final development and testing. A vital element of the test procedure includes a data quality assurance component. Execution of this component falls to a multi-discipline team composed of both legacy RDA and ORDA technicians and engineers, as well as Radar Operations Center (ROC) radar meteorologists.

One facet of this testing involved using a portable ORDA (Porta-ORDA) receiver/signal processor, installed in the legacy system cabinet at three “operational” radar locations to facilitate data collection. The meteorologists collected data by quickly “switching” between the legacy RDA and the Porta-ORDA systems, thereby facilitating data comparison during the same weather regime. These data were processed by a Radar Product Generator (RPG) and the resulting products were displayed, in real-time, on an Open Principal User Processor (OPUP) system which allowed timely, side-by-side comparisons. Representative results and findings are subjectively analyzed and discussed and side-by-side comparisons provided, using the OPUP archive functionality.

Also discussed, and examples presented include: differences in legacy RDA vs ORDA clutter suppression processing and capabilities; increased ORDA sensitivity and data quality improvements; and the contributions of new hardware and software which promote improved operational reliability and system maintainability. Finally, a brief discussion of future enhancements made possible by ORDA is presented.

Further information in the form of statistical/objective analysis and discussion are presented in two ROC Applications Branch contributions to this conference.