Bryan, You're information sounds good to me. The Spokane, WA office is planning on upgrading August/September 2011 for what it's worth. I wouldn't be surprised if the upgrades are pushed back though.
Colby On Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 1:45 PM, Bryan Guarente <dafekt...@yahoo.com> wrote: > 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 > -- NFC-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_WELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NFC_RULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nfc-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NFCL.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NFC-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
