The Future of NWS Technology –NEXRAD

The Future of NWS Technology –NEXRAD

1st NWS Severe Weather Technology User Meeting

July 12-14, 2005July 12-14, 2005

Mike IstokNPI Development Manager

NWS – Office of Science and TechnologyMichael.Istok@NOAA.GOV

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Overview

• NEXRAD Product Improvement: Progress and plans

• Schedules: WSR-88D 7-11, SPG 1-3, AWIPS 7-10

• Radar Product Distribution Enhancements

• Open RDA

• Mesocyclone Detection Algorithm

• Environmental Data Ingest

• TDWR

• Super Resolution Data

• Dual Polarization

• Common Operations and Development Environment

• Priorities: Radar Data Capability Enhancement

• Summary

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NPI: Progress and Plans

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Schedules: WSR-88D 7-11, SPG 1-3, AWIPS 7-10

Build 10+, OB9+, SPG 2+ dates are tentative

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Recent Radar Product Distribution Enhancements (Build 6, 7)

• Compress 8 bit products (Z, V, DHR)– Available for WAN OTR and frame relay dedicated users

• Class 2 user access to products in RPG database

• Increase RPS list limit to 160 products (AWIPS OB4.2)

• AWIPS-WAN based interfaces– OTR Flow Control 64 kbps from NWS WSR-88Ds

– OTR Flow Control 28 kbps from DOD and FAA WSR-88Ds

– AWIPS configuration change for Dual WAN OTR port use

• Implement frame relay links– 100 kbps allocated to product distribution function

– DOD & FAA WSR-88Ds

– Supplemental NWS WSR-88Ds radar

• LAN-LAN interface for RFCs co-located with WSR-88Ds

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Future Radar Product Distribution Enhancements (Build 8, 9)

• AWIPS-WAN based interfaces– Aggregate Flow Control

– 128 kbps from NWS WSR-88D– 64 kbps from DOD and FAA WSR-88Ds

– Add two more WAN OTR ports (44-45)– Add one dedicated WAN port (29) for service backup and/or

central radar product collection backup (AWIPS OB6)

• Default Product Generation– Add products to ensure availability for class 2 users

• Increase frame relay bandwidth to DOD/FAA RPG– To increase Aggregate Flow Control to 128 kbps

• Generate products for non-assoc. user requests– RCS, VCS, ULR, USP, USD, USW, VAD, and CS

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Open RDA

• Accurate base data time stamps (obtained via GPS)

• Base data radials centered on the half degree(+/- 0.04 deg)

• Elevation cuts contain 360 radials (i.e., no overlap)

• New signal processor and clutter filter scheme changes quality of base data

• General Status Message includes RDA software version and redundant channel number (AWIPS OB6)

• Suppression level and Channel removed from Clutter Filter Control (CFC) product (AWIPS OB6)

• Calibration constants in GSM and Reflectivity products changed range and/or format

• Several changes to Level 2 data format and content

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Mesocyclone Detection Algorithm: Completion

• Central Collection and NCDC archive of MD product• Alerting, CR, and RCM

– New MDA Alerting Categories– Use spare Volume(16) and Forecast(32) Group categories– Alert Thresholds based on Strength Rank.

– Proposed Defaults: T1=1, T2=2, T3=3, T4=4, T5=5, T6=6– Modify CZ Combined Attributes (MESO) column

– Change from MESO, 3DCO, UNCO or NONE to 1-25(Strength Rank) or NONE

– Modify Radar Coded Message (RCM) product– NMESnn: The total number (nn) of mesocyclones (NMES) detected

at or above the Minimum Display Filter Strength Rank is encoded. (Example: /NMES05:)

– Mnnggg: The location (ggg) and strength rank (nn) of each Mesocyclone at or above the Minimum Display Filter Strength Rank is encoded using the three-letter grid box designator. (Example: M13NLD).

• Retire legacy Meso algorithm (M, MRU)

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Environmental Data Ingest

• AWIPS provides hourly update to RPG– AWIPS config. will determine which RPG is being served

– 3-D grid of temperature, dew point, wind speed and direction

– Provide data within range of ~200 nmi from radar

– RUC model runs every 3 hours and provides output on 40 km grid

– Analysis, 1 hour, 2 hour

– 40 levels in the vertical

• MSCF option to use/not-use for automatic updating of:– Environmental winds table (velocity dealiasing algorithm)

– Altitude of 0 and -20 deg C temperatures (hail algorithm)

• MSCF will provide simple data viewer to check data quality

• Possible future uses– Severe storm algorithms, determine precip. type, compute heights

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TDWR

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Comparison of TBWI (20.7deg) and KLWX (19.5 deg)

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Super Resolution

• Base Reflectivity and Velocity products– Initially, just on split cuts – New products– ½ degree radials– ¼ km range bins

• Signal processing techniques to reduce variance– Over-sampling– Whitening

• Algorithm tuning– Mesocyclone– TVS– Precipitation

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1 deg / 1 km Resolution 0.5 deg / 0.25 km Resolution

May 10, 2003 03:42 UTC

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Dual Polarization

• Base data products– Differential Reflectivity (ZDR)

– Correlation Coefficient (RHO)

– Differential Phase Shift (PHIDP)

• Derived products– Specific Differential Phase (KDP)

– Hydrometeor Classification algorithm (HCA)– Convective and winter precipitation versions– Discriminate hail, rain, snow, biological targets, and clutter

– Rainfall accumulation algorithm– Based on a combination of polarimetric parameters KDP and

ZDR, and the current linear horizontal reflectivity parameter Z

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Supercell Thunderstorm Producing Softball-Size Hail

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WSR-88D Common Operations and Development Environment (CODE)

• An algorithm development environment for the WSR-88D • Contains software and guidance to create the development

environment on an Intel PC running Red Hat Enterprise Workstation Linux or a Sun Ultra-Sparc/Blade with Solaris 8– Provides a 'clone' of a WSR-88D Radar Product Generator on a

workstation which can run existing and user-created algorithms by ingesting WSR-88D Level 2 data

– Also used to study past weather events by ingesting Level 2 data obtained from NCDC and creating products for analysis

• Includes visualization tools, data sets, documentation, and the operational RPG baseline source code

• Developed and maintained by the NWS OS&T• Updated with each new WSR-88D RPG software release• Used by groups that implement software for future RPG

releases, technique developers, and researchers• A Public Edition is available at http://weather.gov/code88d/

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Priorities: Radar Data Capability Enhancements• All Tilts Frame Expansion(1.8)*• Super-Resolution

– Base Z and V Products(1.8)– MDA(2.0), TVS(2.8), PPS(2.8)

• Dual Polarization– Base Data products(2.0)– HCA(2.0),QPE(2.0)

• NSSL/FSI 4D Radar (2.3)* • Plan View Display of VWP (2.5)*• All Tilts Navigation Tool (2.5)*• Estimated Actual Velocity (3.3)*• Data Quality

– SZ-2, SZ-1, Staggered-PRT, Oversampling, Whitening (3.2)

– Lower Elevation angles(3.2)– New VCPs(3.4) – 300 km Doppler Range(4.3)

• MDA: Alerting, CR, RCM (3.3)• SPG(TDWR) Products

– VWP(4.8), Velocity Dealiasing (3.8)– VIL(6.0)– MDA(4.0), TVS(3.8), SCIT(5.3)– PPS(5.3)– CR(6.3), ULR(6.3)

• Integ. Radar/Enviro. Sampling(4.0)*• MIGFA (3.8)• Enviro. Data From AWIPS (4.3)• Prototype Radars/Products (4.3)• Freezing Level ULR Request (4.3)*• Moving Point Meteogram (4.3)*• Hail Tracks (4.3)• ASR-11 (4.5)• TVS Tracking (4.8)• DVL at a higher scale (5.0)• CANRAD (5.0)• ARSR-4 (5.0)• Rotation Tracks (5.5)• SCIT Rapid Update (5.8)• Probabilistic Precip. Est. (5.8)• VWP Improvements (6.0)• VWP Wind Averaging/Stepping (6.3)*• Uniform Winds Algo. (7.0)• 4km EET (8.3) * - AWIPS only

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Summary

• Priorities determined with field input– 1. Dual Polarization– 2. Super Resolution– 3. SPG products using TDWR data– 4. Whatever else can be done with remaining resources

• OSIP followed to ensure conops, requirements and business case supports implementation

• Resource profiles limit quantity of change• AWIPS & NEXRAD SRECs determine release content • Longer time between major releases lengthens time to

deployment and complicates integration• Prototype, test, and demo platforms representative of the

intended operational environment can foster design refinement and reduce the risk of deploying defects

• User input and feedback is critical