Keynote Talk: What's new at the National Weather Radar Testbed (Phased - Array)

For over six years, the National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) has continued its role as the multi-function phased array radar testbed in Norman, Oklahoma. Developed as a result of a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory, the United States Navy's Office of Naval Research, Lockheed Martin Corporation, the University of Oklahoma's Electrical and Computing Engineering Department and School of Meteorology, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the Tri-Agencies' (Department of Commerce, Defense and Transportation) Radar Operations Center, the Federal Aviation Administration's Technical Center and Basic Commerce and Industries, Inc, the NWRT continues to provide both meteorological and aircraft data for testing the concept of a multifunction phased array radar system. In addition, the NWRT has become an important component in the education of the forthcoming generation of radar meteorologists and engineers.

Each storm season has provided additional data on various severe weather events and an opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of using the phased array radar. We have added new features to the system each year and have continued our planning implementation of a dual-polarized sub-array for testing the characteristics of a phased array dual polarized weather radar. In this paper, we will describe the present status, future upgrades and research progress including results of additional high temporal volumetric scans of severe storms.