Dynamic Scanning for the National Weather Radar Testbed

During 2006 data collected on several convective storms with the National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) Phased Array Radar (PAR) demonstrated the benefits of scanning strategies based on higher temporal and spacial resolutions. The analysis of these data showed that increasing the temporal resolution of a volume scan could potentially benefit short-term forecasting by identifying rapidly changing features that would otherwise be missed with the longer scan times of conventional mechanically scanned radars (i.e., WSR-88D). Furthermore, the data collection demonstrated that storm location plays an important role in determining the best scanning strategy to use. For each of these events, a single pre-defined scanning strategy was chosen to meet the data collection goals at a given time. In many instances, it would have been desirable to "fine-tune" the scanning strategy by changing the number of elevation cuts, reducing azimuthal sector width, etc.

In this paper, changes to the NWRT software that allow "dynamic scanning" of convective events are discussed. Dynamic scanning allows the operator to update scan properties in real-time. It also provides the operator with the capability to schedule more than one scanning strategy (i.e., one or more focused rapid scan strategies followed by a surveillance scanning strategy). Preliminary results on the effectiveness of dynamic scanning used to support projects during the 2007 spring season will be discussed in the extended abstract.