Page 2
The Lake Breeze
New Radar Tool (continued)
have a 360º view of nearby storms over a number altitudes
elevation above the earth's surface. In the past, we had
at 4 to 5 minute intervals, but we could no longer continu-
to look along radar elevation slices, which generally in-
ously look at any individual storm. With the WSR-88D, it's
crease with altitude as one moves away from the radar.
also a bit more difficult to assess storm structure due to the
That is, elevation angles are slanted upwards away from
emphasis of looking at storms on a 2-D plane. Still, the
the radar. CAPPI will allow us to more easily pinpoint
WSR-88D far exceeds the capabilities of the older radar
storms that are increasing in strength.
systems due to the improved resolution, storm detection,
and most importantly he velocity data when compared to
Another feature that will be new is the ability to dynami-
older radar technologies.
cally create cross sections. Our current software allows
us to create indi-
We will now begin
vidual cross sec-
using the FSI tool.
tions, one at a
This software will
time, and only at
allow the fore-
the end of a
caster to get an
complete scan
interactive
3-D
cycle. With FSI,
view of storms. In
we will be able
essence, we will
to interactively
once again be able
create and move
to "slice and dice"
cross sections.
storms
at will.
That is, cross
While there will still
sections will be
be a 4 to 5 minute
generated on the
interval between
fly, as quickly as
radar scans, our
a
forecaster
ability to look at
moves the com-
storm structure will
puter mouse.
be
vastly
im-
proved.
One of the neat-
est features of
FSI is comprised
the new software
of four interactive
is its 3-D panel.
and
dynamically
With this feature,
linked panels as
forecasters will
seen in Figure 1:
be able to virtu-
an elevation angle
ally fly all around
panel (upper left),
any given storm.
a constant altitude
Other neat fea-
panel (upper right),
tures include a
Figure 1 An example of using the FSI with four interactive and dynamically
a vertical cross sec-
continuous zoom
linked panels to look back at an impressive supercell in OK on May 4th 1999.
tion panel (lower
and un-zoom ca-
left), and a 3-D panel (lower right). While we've always had pability, and longer looping capabilities.
the ability to look at individual elevation slices and create
cross sections, the ability to look at a constant elevation (ex We are looking forward to using the new software for the
15000' above ground) is new, as is the ability to look at upcoming convective season with hopes of continuing to
storms from a 3-D perspective. (The 4th dimension is time).
improve our accuracy and lead time on severe thunder-
There are numerous advantages to the new software. One storms.
of the best new features will be the constant altitude plan
Dave Zaff
Science and Operations Officer
position indictor, or CAPPI (upper right). With this feature,
David.Zaff@noaa.gov
we will be able to simply look at radar data at any chosen
NOAA Economic Benefit:
U.S. electricity generators save $166 million annually using 24-hour temperature forecasts to improve the mix
of generating units that are available to meet electricity demand (Teisberg et al., 2005)