News Archive

We are hosting a student-led virtual workshop to plan a field experiment with the NSF CIF RaXPol mobile radar in Florida on August 24 from 2-5 CT! Students will work together to determine the science objectives and radar scanning strategies. You can register for the workshop here.

In September, students can virtually participate in the RaXPol experiment. We will have a live camera view to see RaXPol in action, as well as a link to our live data display! Short courses on radar and thunderstorms will also be offered.

The ARRC's Executive Director, Bob Palmer, has been named Education Innovator of the Year by 405 Business Magazine.

Dr. Palmer said, "There is no other organization like the ARRC in the country.  We are academic, but have a start-up feel and culture.  Our members (faculty, staff, and students) are the best in the world, and we have put OU on the map regarding innovations in radar.  Customers now come to us for solutions."

Read the full article on page 47. Link

Each year, the Association of Old Crows showcases five young professionals as the year's Future 5, recognizing those who actively innovate and strive for excellence as they build their careers in the EMS/EW/IO industry.

Now a Radar Staff Systems Engineer at Maxar Technologies, Rachel discusses her career goals and early career achievements here.

Congratulations to SoM/ARRC Postdoctoral Fellow Yagmur Derin for being awarded the International Precipitation Working Group Early Career Scientist Award - First Prize for outstanding presentation/poster 2022!

IPWG is part of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and focuses the scientific community on operational and research satellite-based quantitative precipitation measurement. Yagmur presented on the challenging topic of quantitative precipitation estimation from satellites in complex terrain. Precipitation estimation in mountainous regions is uncertain because interacting processes between the atmosphere and topography are difficult to observe. Yagmur uses the U.S. ground radar network and environmental conditions from numerical models to capture the conditions where precipitation estimation from space is challenged. Her research benefits NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. The GPM mission involves an international network of satellites that provides global observations of rain and snow to advance our understanding of Earth's water and energy cycle, improve forecasting of extreme events, and provide accurate and timely information to directly benefit society. Yagmur is supervised by Dr. Pierre Kirstetter.

The goal of the Deep Convective Microphysics Experiment (DCMEX) project is to ultimately reduce the uncertainty in equilibrium climate sensitivity by improving the representation of microphysical processes in global climate models (GCMs).

OutstandingColleges.com, a website dedicated to "providing people with useful information to help them make the right decision when selecting what school to go to" has ranked OU as the best college to study meteorology in the nation. It cites OU's strong research program and students' opportunity to work with faculty on cutting-edge projects. OU also recently claimed the top spot in the nation for research and development in atmospheric sciences and meteorology in the leading report for higher education research and development expenditures, or HERD survey. OU is #1 in the nation in research expenditures in that category and #6 in the overall sector of Geosciences, Atmospheric Sciences and Ocean Sciences.

Pictured is ARRC student Rachael Cross teaching K-12 students about weather radar using the RaXPol mobile radar.

These K-12 students were participating in the OU Mini College on July 26, 2022 to learn about different areas of study offered at the University of Oklahoma.

Rachael is a PhD student in the School of Meteorology, advised by Dr. David Bodine.

In episode 3 of the new podcast series "Conversations with the President," OU's fifteenth president Joe Harroz meets with VPRP Tomas Diaz de la Rubia to discuss strategies for excellence in research at the University of Oklahoma. They reference the Advanced Radar Research Center as the top lab in the nation for radar innovations. Link

ARRC/ECE M.S. student Jonathan Knowles recently competed in the 22nd IEEE Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON) student paper competition, where he placed 3rd. This year's WAMICON took place in Clearwater, Florida,  April 27 & 28, 2022. Jonathan was the lead author on the paper titled "Design of a Symmetric Lumped-Element Bandpass Filtering Attenuator (Filtenuator)," along with his advisors, Drs. Jay McDaniel and Hjalti Sigmarsson.

Jonathan has also been selected as our July 2022 ARRC Student of the Month, so we have included more information about him here:

How long have you been a part of the ARRC:

• I started at the ARRC in the Spring of 2019 as an undergraduate research assistant conducting research on synthetic aperture radar system design and packaging. In the Spring of 2021, I started my masters and continued at the ARRC as a graduate research assistant focused on filtering attenuators (filtenuators). In the Spring of 2022, I graduated with my masters and am now pursuing my Ph.D. with Dr. McDaniel.

Scholarships/journal awards/publications etc. that you have received: 

• The Intel “Growing the Legacy” Scholarship (2018-2020)

• The Cobell Scholarship (2018-Present)

• ARRC Student Conference Paper Award (2022) 

• Co-founder of the OU chapter of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) student organization, which was named the Best New Chapter of the Year at the SpaceVision 2020 conference 

• J. M. Knowles, H. H. Sigmarsson, and J. W. McDaniel, “Design of a Symmetric Lumped-Element Bandpass Filtering Attenuator (Filtenuator),” 22nd IEEE Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON), pp. 1-4, 2022. 

• J. M. Knowles, H. H. Sigmarsson, and J. W. McDaniel, “Generalized Theory and Realization of Continuously Loss-Programmable Filtering Attenuators,” IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques (TMTT), 2022. (under review).

Current Research: 

• My current research is on continuously loss-programmable and frequency-agile filtenuator theory and design. This newly developed concept allows for a single component to change passband attenuation in real-time for large dynamic range system requirements, while simultaneously providing the desired filtering characteristics. The project is funded by the Kansas City National Security Campus (KCNSC), which is focused on developing novel components for future low cost, size, weight, and power (C-SWaP) radar systems.

What do you like to do in your free time: 

• I enjoy hanging out with my friends and family, watching and playing sports, reading, building stuff, and playing with my dogs.

Plans for after graduating: 

• I hope to pursue a career in academia as an assistant professor after graduation, so that I can be a mentor to the next generation of engineers and scientists (especially Native American students) while also continue working on exciting research.

The ARRC’s mobile radars are participating in the National Science Foundation-supported ESCAPE field campaign in Houston, Texas to study the lifecycle of thunderstorms that form along the sea breeze. In the summer, thunderstorms frequently form along the sea breeze in the Houston area. In addition, these thunderstorms form in air masses with different concentrations of aerosols, which are very small particles on which cloud droplets can form.

Houston is a unique experimental setting since there are air masses near Houston with abundant aerosols that can be compared to lower concentrations of aerosols over nearby rural areas and the Gulf of Mexico. The science goal is to understand how the lifecycle and associated properties of thunderstorms differ within each of these different areas to better understand the impact of aerosols on thunderstorms.

The ARRC is deploying two mobile radars, the Rapid X-band Polarimetric Radar (RaXPol) and the PX-1000 radars, to obtain information about the precipitation and winds within storms. The radars are collecting both rapid-scan observations of thunderstorms as well as dedicated vertical cross sections to better understand storm structure. RaXPol is part of the NSF Community Instruments and Facilities program, which can be requested to support NSF field campaigns. The ARRC mobile radars are deployed alongside aircraft that fly within clouds and their surrounding environments, as well as other remote sensing and in-situ instrumentation sponsored by the NSF and the Department of Energy's TRACER programs.