The recently announced National Weather Center on campus will provide more than weather forecasts to the local and university communities.

Meteorology research and technology that could impact national security issues may be explored at the same time. New radar technologies that can detect weather movement as well as aviation movement is being advanced in Norman, said Kelvin Droegemeier, meteorology professor and director of the Center for Analyzes and Prediction of Storms. This type of research has earned another meaning since the Sept. 11 attacks, he said.

Phased array radar technology gives meteorologists the best of two worlds: military aviation radar technology and meteorology technology, Droegemeier said. Therefore, the radar can also be used to detect aircraft in the atmosphere.

In addition, phase array data can be used to calculate where, in case of a chemical or biological terrorist attack from the air, potentially toxic materials would blow in the atmosphere, because wind and temperature can be determined quickly, Droegemeier said. People could be warned in advance and precautions could be taken.

The radar technology and capabilities for developing these kinds of technologies have existed for a long time because of weather and aviation research. Interest for applying these technologies in different ways has risen since Sept. 11 attacks on America, Droegemeier said.

Public safety experts have approached Droegemeier and other meteorologists and inquired about these technologies since the attacks, he said.

"There is a greater appreciation for the technologies now," he said.

Current technology, or NEXRAD, can determine rotation in storms that may produce tornadoes, Droegemeier said. The radar takes 6 minutes to scan the atmosphere. Six minutes can be a lot of time when tracking weather, because of its fast changes, he said.

The next generation of technology, phased array technology, does the same process much faster, Droegemeier said. Using multiple beams and frequencies that are controlled electronically, phased array radar reduces the scan time of severe weather from six minutes radar to less than one minute, producing quicker updates.

Besides a faster scan, phased array radar can differentiate between rain, hail and snow, he said.

Researchers at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Severe Storms Laboratory will soon begin adapting the SPY-1 military radar technology for use in spotting severe weather, said James Kimpel, director of the Norman severe storm research laboratory. Early tests of the phased array radar system have proved promising, and the technology has the potential to vastly improve the NEXRAD system for all weather radar applications, he said.

In the next two years, a National Weather Radar Testbed will be established at the storm laboratory, which will provide the first phased array radar facility available on a full-time basis to the radar meteorological research community.

"The phased array radar project provides the opportunity to continue NSSL?s leadership in the research and development of future generations of weather radar," Kimpel said.

"We expect new knowledge of the evolution of severe and hazardous weather will be uncovered by the rapid scanning capability of phased array radar," he said.

The unique federal, private, state and academic partnership will develop the technology. Participants include NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory, Lockheed Martin, U.S. Navy, OU School of Meteorology, OU College of Engineering and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The union of the groups within the National Weather Center will allow research to move forward in technology and pass it on to society, Droegemeier said. The key is partnerships with the private sector.

Partnerships such as the one recently formed between OU and Williams and Williams Communications allow technology developed in a university environment to be made available to the public quickly and will have an impact on the economy.

"The Williams project helps getting technology in people's hands quickly," he said.

Besides the research money for technology, the National Weather Center will pull in funding for other things researched in Norman such as climate research and numerical weather models, Droegemeier said.

OU President David Boren said the weather center will have an economic impact on the area.

"The construction of the Weather Center will be one of the most important events in the history of our state in terms of its impact on economic development," Boren said.

"It is expected that it will bring as much as $100 million in new research to our state in a very short time," he said.

Oklahoma is a unique and favored place for weather research due to its geography, Droegemeier said. Winds from the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains make for Oklahoma's spectacular weather, such as tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.

Norman is already known as the center for weather radar research and development in the nation, said Kelli Tarp, NOAA spokeswoman. Nearly 30 years ago, researchers in Oklahoma began developing what became NEXRAD, a system of 120 Doppler radars deployed across the United States, she said.
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