Integration of Wide-Band, Nanoresolution Barometers into the CASA DFW Urban Demonstration Network

From 2006-2011 the NSF Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) operated a network of four, X-band weather radars in southwestern Oklahoma to demonstrate the operational and research value of high spatio-temporal resolution polarimetric observations of the lower-troposphere on forecasting, nowcasting, and real-time response to severe convective weather events, such as tornadoes and flooding. The radar network was designed and deployed in part to respond to an NRC recommendation to investigate networks of small radars as a way to fill coverage gaps in the WSR-88D system [NRC, Beyond NEXRAD, 2002]. One of the major efforts to continue the CASA concept beyond NSF ERC funding (ending 2013) is the CASA Dallas-Fort-Worth Urban Demonstration Network (the CASA DFW testbed) – a federal, state, local, and privately funded effort – where a network, ultimately with as many as 20 CASA-type radars covering 12 of the 16 counties that make up the DFW metroplex, will be shared by the multiple stakeholders involved in operations, research, and testing in a dynamic urban environment. Combined with other instruments, the CASA DFW testbed is being seen as a platform for testing some of the Network-of-Networks concepts described in a recent NRC report [NRC, Observing Weather and Climate from the Ground Up, 2009]. This paper will describe one such test and evaluation project to integrate multifunctional pressure instruments providing calibration standard barometric pressure, infrasound monitoring, and GPS meteorology (for water vapor monitoring) into each of CASA's DFW radars. By doing so, a 30 km grid spacing of such observations is achieved, the same as the spacing of the radars. The value of adding these additional observations will be evaluated, particularly with respect to their impact on urban flood forecasting.