U of OK to be partner in research center

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Oct 2, 2003 by Journal Record staff

Sensing technology that will improve forecasts and warnings of such weather hazards as tornadoes and flash floods will be the focus of a new $40 million research center in which the University of Oklahoma is a primary partner, the National Science Foundation announced Wednesday.

The center will be based at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Funded in part with a five-year, $17 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere is expected to increase the warning time for tornadoes, flash floods and other severe weather disturbances, and provide more accurate forecasts than ever before.

The National Science Foundation grant was awarded through its Engineering Research Center program, which fosters collaboration among researchers from many disciplines and provides an educational and research environment that prepares a new generation of engineering leaders.

In 1989, one of the first 11 NSF Science and Technology Center grants established OU's Center for the Analysis and Prediction of Storms, which develops techniques for the computer-based prediction of high-impact local weather. OU is the only institution in the country at which a Science and Technology Center has helped lay the foundation for an Engineering Research Center.

OU researchers will be led by Kelvin Droegemeier, professor of meteorology and director of the Center for the Analysis and Prediction of Storms, who will serve as Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere's deputy director, and by Fred Carr, professor of meteorology and director of the OU School of Meteorology, who will serve as CASA's associate director for Oklahoma activities.

OU will head CASA's meteorology efforts, while the University of Massachusetts will lead the radar engineering aspects. OU units that are members of the interdisciplinary team are the Center for the Analysis and prediction of Storms and the School of Meteorology in the College of Geosciences; Department of Mathematics, a unit of the College of Arts and Sciences; schools of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, both in the College of Engineering; and Oklahoma Climatological Survey.

Other CASA partners include the Norman-based National Severe Storms Laboratory, a unit of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; OneNet, Oklahoma's statewide network for research and education; Vieux and Associates Inc. of Norman; Colorado State University; the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Raytheon; IBM; and The Weather Channel.

Current forecasting and warning technology uses data from high- power, long-range radars that cannot observe the lower part of the atmosphere because of Earth's curvature, which hampers, for example, direct observation of most tornadoes. CASA will develop low-cost, dense networks of radars that operate at short range, communicate with one another and adjust their sensing strategies in direct response to the evolving weather and changing user needs. A new generation of meteorological software will use this radar data to support emergency managers and government and private industry organizations that need weather data for making critical decisions.

OU will run the first test bed of up to 16 CASA radars that will be located on OneNet towers and other facilities in central and western Oklahoma - a region that experiences about 22 tornadoes per year - with the first four radars scheduled to be in place by spring 2005.

The second test bed will be in Houston, where CASA will deploy a system to predict floods more accurately. A third test, in Puerto Rico, will improve monitoring of hurricanes as they approach land.

CASA is expected to generate between $70 million and $100 million in funding over its formal 10-year life. During the first five years, OU will receive $5.5 million in direct funding from the foundation, while the university will contribute matching support of $1.2 million and private industry is expected to provide a minimum of $2 million to $3 million more over the same period.

Vieux and Associates, a Norman company that customizes radar estimates of precipitation for hydrologic applications, will be involved in the second CASA test bed in Houston, where it has helped develop a flood alert system for the Texas Medical Center.

Vieux and Associates' tools will be contributed for use in evaluation of rainfall estimates developed by CASA, said company president Jean Vieux. Additionally, we will provide feedback on operational issues that could improve radar system design. This project introduces a new way of looking at rainfall and we anticipate benefits to a wide range of water management applications including flood prediction.