Expanding the NOAA Profiler Network: Technology evalutation and new applications for the coastal environment

NOAA's Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) Program funded the Earth System Research Laboratory to conduct a technology evaluation to determine which type of vertically-pointing, wind-profiling radar technology was best suited to marine and coastal weather applications. The test was conducted at the Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory along the northern California coast from September 2005 to August 2006. The two systems deployed side-by-side for comparison were the 915-MHz boundary-layer wind profiler, which has been used in weather and air quality research field campaigns for two decades and is commercially available, and a recently developed ¼-scale 449-MHz wind profiler, a number of which have been purchased by the U.S. Air Force for a drug smuggling interdiction program along the U.S. Southern border. The profilers were evaluated based on their operating performance and altitude coverage, as well as their ability to detect and monitor a variety of meteorological variables and phenomena important to weather and hydrometeorological prediction in the coastal region. This paper will summarize the results of the technology evaluation and describe some of the new wind profiler applications that have been developed in the past several years to help improve short-term forecasts and nowcasts of hazardous weather affecting the coastal environment.