As reported at the last Interactive Information Processing Systems (IIPS) conference, a $25 million national asset for weather radar research is expected to be operational in Norman, Oklahoma by the end of 2003. This project is being developed by a partnership between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory, the United States Navy's Office of Naval Research, Lockheed Martin Corporation, the University of Oklahoma's Electrical Engineering Department and School of Meteorology, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the National Weather Service's Radar Operational Center and the Federal Aviation Administration's Technical Center. Considerable progress has been made in converting the Navy's SPY-1 phased array antenna system into this weather research tool.

The National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) is currently being integrated and tested by Lockheed Martin. In this paper, we will describe our progress, current schedule and more detailed explanations of the capabilities of this new national facility.