92nd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Sunday, 22 January 2012
A Comparision of Wind Estimates FROM CASA and NEXRAD Radars DURING SEVERE Wind Events
Hall E (New Orleans Convention Center )
Adam K. Taylor, CAPS/Univ. of Oklahoma, Mead, NE; and J. Brotzge and F. H. Carr

The Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) Oklahoma test bed has proven the usefulness of a high-resolution, rapidly updating network of radars for a variety of applications. The aim of this project is to quantify the value of the CASA network for the detection of severe wind events. A comparison is made between the performance of Next Generation Doppler Weather Radar (NEXRAD) and CASA radial wind measurements in relation to Oklahoma Mesonet reports of high wind gusts. Two factors inhibit the accurate measurement of winds from weather radar: (1) The viewing angle of the radial velocity beam, and (2) the beam height above ground level. Results show that the CASA radar network performed better overall for detecting and analyzing high wind events within the test bed. CASA dual-Doppler data improved the measurement of winds by 7.27 m/s over all NEXRAD measurements.

Supplementary URL: