David, Andy, and other interested parties,
According to some Technical Information Notices put out by the National Weather
Service (NWS), the beta test for live data starts on November 17th. I haven't
heard recently, but I thought the test bed was going to be Wichita, KS. Plans
may have changed since I last heard. [Colby any word on this one?] The
Norman,
OK radar is a research radar, and usually isn't available for regular viewing
that I know of. There are other dual-pol radars, multiple on trucks (used
during Vortex 2) and a few that are portable, but not really mobile. The
Norman
radar has been the go-to for dual-pol radars for some time in the U.S., but
that
will not likely turn over to be operational any time. When the NWS upgrade to
all the radars comes along, then most of the nation should be covered with this
data. There are other radars (phased array) on the horizon that might be
useful
for bird detection as well, but I don't know enough about them yet to make any
solid statements.
I wanted to make a quick clarification about David's original posting. David
mentioned that the radars will be able to get the drop-size distributions from
their scans, but this is not exactly true. The drop-size distributions may be
inferred from the radar imagery, but this will be a poor assumption initially
until we learn more about storms from this new source. One of the things, we
will get is actually hydrometeor characterization (precipitation type) from the
radar scans. However, the algorithm to identify the hydrometeors is not
perfect, so there will be some issues. According to the algorithm though,
there
is a distinct type/color for non-meteorological targets (i.e., birds, insects,
and I think dust as well). So it would be significantly easier to pick out
possible birds on radar once these are in place, if we get access to this
product.
Bryan Guarente
Instructional Designer
The COMET Program
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
Boulder, CO
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