The US National Weather Service (NWS) recently completed the installation of 120 WSR-88D (NEXRAD) Doppler weather radars, concurrent with which was the deployment of 26 Department of Defense and 12 Federal Aviation Administration radars. Although these systems originally were designed without archival capability for the full-volume, full-precision Level II (base) data, an interim solution, based upon 8 mm tape technology, eventually was implemented. Since 1992, the National Climatic Data Center has been archiving the data tapes and using the same media to provide base data to the national community. Although an innovative and satisfactory solution several years ago, the tape system is extremely human-resource intensive, costly, inefficient, and unreliable.

In an attempt to begin addressing the long-term needs for WSR-88D base data archival, and in light of the compelling need for real-time access to base data for use in a variety of applications, especially numerical weather prediction, the Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms at the University of Oklahoma joined forces in 1998 with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the University of Washington, the National Severe Storms Laboratory, and the WSR-88D Operational Support Facility to establish the Collaborative Radar Acquisition Field Test (CRAFT). The principal goal of CRAFT was to demonstrate the real time compression and internet-based transmission of WSR-88D base data from multiple radars with a view toward nationwide implementation. The project began with a test bed of six radars, located in and around Oklahoma, and was successful in demonstrating and expanding reliable delivery of real time base data since early 1999 with virtually no interruptions. By April 2004, the network had expanded to 124 WSR-88D data feeds via NWS regional data servers. CRAFT technology consistently achieved data transmission targets, from the source radars to a user server, with as little as ten seconds latency.

A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration memorandum of agreement, signed in April 2004, established The University of Oklahoma as one of three top-tier providers. Integrated Radar Data Services (IRaDS) was created in April 2004 as a program of The University of Oklahoma and developed as a top-tier provider of data transmission at cost. IRaDS has a mission to explore collaborative efforts with weather technology vendors and deliver a highly reliable and cost-efficient resource for weather commerce.

We describe in this paper the continuing evolution of the original motivation that carried Project CRAFT as well as the IRaDS implementation strategy that shows great potential as a model for public/private cooperation. Additionally, we discuss opportunities for further devlopment of the IRaDS program model—including incorporation of other surveillance radar systems, especially those operated by the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as a new generation of experimental radars.