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Last modified
7/28/2009 2:39:20 PM
Creation date
4/18/2008 10:02:52 AM
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Template:
Weather Modification
Title
Interagency Agreement Funds Usage Period Report - February 2001
Date
2/1/2001
Weather Modification - Doc Type
Report
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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Some minor changes have been made to better accommodate the needs of the National Weather <br />Service (NWS) National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (NOHRSC) in <br />Chanhassen, MN. For example, gridded field data an~ being provided on a daily basis (12 Z to <br />12 Z) rather than for the periods cited in Goal 4. The~;e files are automatically transferred from <br />a Reclamation server to a NOHRSC server using ftp and the Internet. The past 1 and 3 hours <br />products are being made available as are 2 and 6 houlrs products for both SWE and SD. These <br />are updated each hour and posted at a Reclamation web site as will be discussed. However, <br />NOHRSC is not yet ready to deal with NEXRAD prodUlcts of less duration than 24 h. <br /> <br />Goal 2. was partially accomplished by this project and partially by a closely related GCIP project, <br />both with additional support from the Bureau of RElclamation (Reclamation) Research and <br />Technology Transfer Program. The first annual report for the latter GCIP project (Super 1998) <br />discusses how Reclamation's Snow Accumulation Algorithm (SAA) was modified to use NEXRAD <br />Information Dissemination System (NIDS) reflectivity data as input. The SAA was developed for <br />the tri-agency NEXRAD Operational Support Facility (Super and Holroyd 1998) using Level II <br />reflectivity data with 0.5 dBZ resolution. With rare excoptions (e.g., a few research universities), <br />Level II data are only available in real-time at the NEXRAD radars and downstream Radar Product <br />Generators (RPG) at NWS Forecast Offices and similar facilities for the other two NEXRAD <br />agencies, the Federal Aviation Administration and thE~ U.S. Air Force. Highly specialized and <br />expensive equipment is needed to extract real-time Level II data for non-standard purposes even <br />at NWS Forecast Offices. <br /> <br />Super (1998) demonstrated that use of the lower resolution (4 or 5 dBZ depending upon volume <br />coverage pattern) NIDS reflectivity data, sometimes called "Level III" data, did not significantly <br />degrade SAA performance in Minnesota. The same result would be expected for the entire <br />Northern Great Plains region, and perhaps for NEXRAD-observed snowfalls in general. <br /> <br />Reclamation made arrangements to obtain near real-time NIDS data from several radars through <br />the WSI Corporation for the 1998-99 fall/winter/spring period. These data have been routinely <br />received via the Internet since the fall of 1998, usually within a few minutes after radar <br />observations are made. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) previously <br />developed Unidata Local Data Manager (LDM) software for transfer of many types of <br />meteorological data. This complex package was freely obtained from UCAR and installed on a <br />Reclamation workstation, albeit with some effort. The WSI Corporation provides Internet transfer <br />only via Unidata LDM software. While the Unidata LDM package is much more complex than <br />would be needed for just NIDS data transfer, it has proven to be very reliable since some initial <br />installation problems were solved. The cooperation of UCAR in helping with these problems is <br />appreciated. <br /> <br />During the current winter, Reclamation is obtaining NIDS reflectivity measurements for NEXRAD <br />radars located at or near Bismarck and Grand Forks, North Dakota; Aberdeen, South Dakota; and <br />Duluth and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Data are obtained as individual files for each of the 4 lowest <br />antenna tilts of each volume scan. These are then combined into an abbreviated volume scan, <br />usually with 4 tilts. However, some tilts are occasionally not received. The SAA is configured to <br />operate with any volume scan that contains at least thE~ lowest and next-to-Iowest tilts, as these <br />are sufficient for use over the relatively flat terrain of Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas. The <br />SAA attempts to use the lowest tilt beam to as close of every radar as possible while avoiding <br />ground returns. This approach minimizes the problem of scanning well above ground where <br /> <br />2 <br />
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