Phased array radar innovative sensing experiment

The electronic steering of the National Weather Radar Testbed Phased Array Radar (PAR) can be used to enable targeted scanning of weather echoes. During the 2009 PAR Innovative Sensing Experiment (PARISE), targeted scanning of storms was accomplished using a new adaptive scanning algorithm and nontraditional scanning strategies. The PARISE was conducted at the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed in Norman, Oklahoma 27 April – 14 June 2009. Throughout the experiment, visiting NWS forecasters provided feedback on the operational utility of these weather sensing techniques.

The purpose of the adaptive scanning algorithm, referred to as ADAPTS (Adaptive DSP Algorithm for PAR Timely Scans), is to focus data collection on areas with significant weather echoes to provide users with high-temporal resolution data. In addition to ADAPTS, we developed storm-type scanning strategies to sample nonsevere storms, severe storms without rotation, and supercell storms. Supercell storms were sampled using an interlaced scanning strategy with sampling prioritized such that the lowest tilts updated most frequently, followed by midlevel tilts, and upper-level tilts. This paper reports on the performance of the adaptive scanning algorithm and the storm-type scanning strategies in light of the storm evolution depicted by the PAR data.