Fall 2007
SMART radar data and Texas Tech University "sticknet" (rapid deployment observing platforms) deployments from 22 May 2007 in the northern Texas Panhandle
Storms targeted by mobile radars
Two SMART-Radars were deployed in concert with PAR operations during the Spring 2007 National Weather Radar Testbed Demonstration. NSSL and the University of Oklahoma led a team to investigate the advantages of rapidly scanning the atmosphere and to evaluate, using data assimilation techniques, the impact of phased array radar technology on the prediction of severe weather.
The Phased Array SMART-R Spring Experiment (PASSE) deployed SMART-R’s in central and western Oklahoma to collect data on supercell storms at low altitudes. Researchers will use the data to determine if assimilating rapidly updating surface data into models will improve storm scale forecasts. Scientists also positioned the SMART-radars to provide double radar coverage (PAR and SMART-R) on hazardous weather targets to compare differences in radar parameters.
The Data Assimilation Resolution Experiment (DARE) deployed SMART-R’s to target data collection on the vertical structure of multicell storms, especially in the mid levels of the storm where the storm’s updraft and downdraft structure can rapidly evolve. Better diagnosis of this part of the storm system should improve our ability to model multicell storms for lightning research, quantitative precipitation forecasting, and hail prediction.
The
SMART-R's also deployed to the Texas panhandle on 23 May, 2007 to observe a
non-classic tornado that was spawned from a supercell storm embedded in multicellular
convection.