The National Severe Storms Laboratory has played the primary role in the development and evaluation of National Weather Service severe weather applications for the WSR-88D Doppler radar. NSSL developed many of the primary detection algorithms for the radar, and is currently developing improvements to these algorithms. The traditional WSR-88D severe weather algorithms have been designed for use with a single-radar data source. Although the algorithm guidance has led to an improvement of the National Weather Service (NWS) severe weather warning statistics, it is understood that effective warning decisions can only be made via the integration of information from many sources, including input from multiple remote sensors (multiple radars, mesoscale models, satellite, lightning, etc.). Therefore, these traditional single-radar sever weather algorithms are being updated to take advantage of additional data sources in order to reduce the uncertainty of the measurements and increase the accuracy of the diagnoses of severe weather.

This presentation will describe the Multiple-Radar Severe Storms Analysis Program (MR-SSAP) for the Warning Decision Support System - Integrated Information (WDSS-II). The original SSAP was the NSSL-developed algorithm system that included the Storm-Cell Identification and Tracking (SCIT) algorithm, the Hail Diagnosis Algorithm (HDA), the Mesocyclone Detection Algorithm (MDA), the TVS Detection Algorithm (TDA), and the Damaging Downburst Prediction and Detection Algorithm (DDPDA). Each of these operated using only single-radar data [near-storm environment (NSE) data from the RUC mesoscale model was also integrated into the original SSAP]. The MR-SSAP extends the concepts of all 5 of these algorithms into the multiple-radar, and multiple-sensor realm. We will describe the new algorithms and explain how the WDSSII facilitated the development process of the algorithms. The results of initial testing of the multi-radar algorithms in an operational setting at the NWS Forecast Office at Jackson Mississippi, where four level-II WSR-88D data streams are available for operations, will be shown.