News Archive

Congratulations to Manabendra Saharia, CEES/ARRC PhD student, who won first prize in the Graduate Student Poster Contest at the Society of Environmental Journalism (SEJ) 25th Annual Conference held in Norman, October 7-11. Saharia's work on the flashiest basins of the United States is supervised by Drs. Pierre Kirstetter (CEES/ARRC), J.J. Gourley (NOAA/NSSL), and Yang Hong (CEES/ARRC).

The ARRC's PX-1000 radar was deployed for a second field experiment to monitor weather and hydrology over areas affected by wildfire and debris flows in the Rio Grande area of Colorado from August to September 2015. The radar was operated from the Lobo Overlook to monitor precipitation and complement the NEXRAD coverage in complex terrain. The operations were coordinated with the local emergency managers, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the National Weather Service (NWS), NASA, and the Pagosa Springs Middle School. Pueblo NWS personnel displayed real time weather activity in and around the West Fork Fire Complex at the front of the forecast operations area, which provided forecasters the ability to observe the weather with greater predictability. This resulted in very few warnings being issued, equating to less worry for the public. Project presentations and radar demonstrations were also made at the Pagosa Springs Middle School.

A team of engineers and meteorologists from the ARRC will develop faster, more advanced imaging radar with a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The C-band, mobile, polarimetric, imaging radar will provide simultaneous snapshots of a storm with unprecedented resolution and flexibility. The new mobile radar will provide updates of polarimetric measurements every few seconds on tornadoes, lightning, and hurricanes, leading to new understanding of these phenomena on incredible time and spatial scales. This faster, more advanced imaging radar will lead to a better understanding of storms and provide improved severe weather warnings. The team, led by Dr. Tian-You Yu, includes ECE/ARRC professors Drs. Jorge Salazar and Caleb Fulton, and SoM/ARRC professors Drs. Robert Palmer and Howard Bluestein.

A team of engineers and meteorologists from the ARRC will develop faster, more advanced imaging radar with a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The C-band, mobile, polarimetric, imaging radar will provide simultaneous snapshots of a storm with unprecedented resolution and flexibility. The new mobile radar will provide updates of polarimetric measurements every few seconds on tornadoes, lightning, and hurricanes, leading to new understanding of these phenomena on incredible time and spatial scales. This faster, more advanced imaging radar will lead to a better understanding of storms and provide improved severe weather warnings. The team, led by Dr. Tian-You Yu, includes ECE/ARRC professors Drs. Jorge Salazar and Caleb Fulton, and SoM/ARRC professors Drs. Robert Palmer and Howard Bluestein.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded OU, along with Oklahoma State University, the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and the University of Kentucky, $6 million over the next four years to explore physics in the Earth's lower atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) through the application of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technology. Having a thorough understanding of the ABL is critically important for such applications as numerical weather predictions, monitoring air quality, optimal placement and operation of wind farms, battling wild fires, and assisting forecasters in general. Dr. Phillip Chilson (SoM/ARRC), shown in photo with Dr. Jamey Jacob from OSU, is lead investigator at OU. In addition to collecting data in the ABL, this funding will allow the study of climate change on society, under the leadership of Dr. Elinor Martin (SoM), and will support Dr. Jessica Ruyle (ECE/ARRC) in her research to develop improved methods of detecting and tracking small UAS and efficiently communicating with aircraft.

A team of scientists from the University of Oklahoma's (OU's) Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC) is deploying two mobile weather radars from the ARRC in advance of hurricane Joaquin. Hurricane Joaquin has already reached major storm status (Cat 3) and is expected to strengthen further before weakening slightly by landfall.  Given that inland flooding is a major cause for loss of life during landfalling hurricanes, the ARRC scientists will focus on studying "Rossby Vortex Waves", an atmospheric wave phenomena that generates rain bands that spin outward from the eyewall region into the inner core of the hurricane.  It is believed that these rain bands contribute significantly to the flooding rains that accompany many landfalling hurricanes. The team, led by Dr. Michael Biggerstaff from OU's School of Meteorology, have deployed mobile radars in past hurricanes including Isabel in 2003, Francis in 2004, Ike in 2008, Irene in 2011 and Isaac in 2012.  The two radars being sent to study Joaquin are the ARRC's rapid-scanning dual-polarimetrric X-band radar (RaXPOL) and the C-band dual-polarimetric Shared Mobile Atmospheric Research and Teaching (SMART) radar.  Both radars have been used to study tornadic storms, lightning, nocturnal heavy rains and hurricanes.   The OU group is part of the Digital Hurricane Consortium, a collection of university, private sector and federal laboratories that coordinate research observing system deployments in advance of landfalling hurricanes.  This year the SMART radar data will be transmitted back in near real-time to a server at OU and made available to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for dissemination in a preliminary test of the Coastal Recovery Act which will support future deployments to aid operational weather forecasts and warnings during landfalling hurricanes in the US.

ARRC professor Dr. Phillip Chilson talked about the potential of using drones - unmanned aerial vehicles - to provide weather coverage for the lower atmosphere.

To hear more about the story, please visit this link at the Oklahoma's KOCO 5 website.

Research Scientist Dr. Pierre-Emmanuel Kirstetter (ARRC/NSSL), along with Dr. Yang Hong (CEES/ARRC) and Dr. Jonathan J. Gourley (NSSL) are members of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Post-Launch Team recently selected for a NASA Agency Group Achievement Award with a citation “For exceeding all expectations for GPM operations, data processing, algorithm performance, science impact, and education and public outreach within one year after launch”. GPM is an international network of satellites that provides the next-generation observations of rain and snow across the entire globe. NASA's most prestigious honor awards are approved by the Administrator and presented to a number of carefully selected individuals who have distinguished themselves by making outstanding contributions to the Agency's mission. These NASA awards highlight the contribution of outstanding hydrometeorological research conducted on the Norman campus to advance our understanding of Earth's water and energy cycle, improve forecasting of extreme events such as floods, and extend current capabilities in using accurate and timely observations of precipitation to directly benefit society.

Please join us for the 2015 International Symposium on Earth-Science Challenges (ISEC) to be held in Norman, Oklahoma. ISEC is dedicated to bringing together scientists and engineers from around the world to share recent advances in the study of the Earth. Attendees will enjoy an exciting social program centered on the many attractions in Norman, Oklahoma. Abstract submission is now open and can be found under the 2015 ISEC tab.