I am a senior research scientist with the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies (CIMMS) and the Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC) at the University of Oklahoma (OU), where I am affiliated with the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL).
My background is in electrical engineering, and I have over 15 years of experience in the field of weather radar signal processing. I am the leader of the Advanced Radar Techniques (ART) team within the Radar Research and Development Division at NSSL where I work on:
For more information about me and/or the projects that I'm working on, please take a look at my resume/CV and/or visit my research page.
In a 2008 survey about scanning strategy improvements for the WSR-88D conducted by the US National Weather Service (NWS), 62% of forecasters indicated the need for faster updates. High-temporal resolution data (~1 min) is expected to improve the understanding, detection, and warning of hazardous weather phenomena.
Faster data updates like those demonstrated with the
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With faster updates as one of our major goals, significant hardware, software infrastructure, and signal processing upgrades continue to be accomplished to support the NWRT mission as a demonstrator system for the Multi-function Phased-Array Radar (MPAR) concept.
Two methods are currently exploited to reduce scan times without sacrificing data precision or spatial sampling: adaptive range oversampling and focused observations. The latter can be possible through a series of improvements to the radar's scan control functionality. These are summarized in our latest conference paper that was presented at the 2013 AMS Annual Meeting in Austin, TX.
Through continuous engineering upgrades, we are able to demonstrate that PAR technology can be exploited to achieve performance levels that are unfeasible with current operational technology. Nonetheless, more research is needed to translate these improvements into concrete, measurable, and meaningful service improvements.
The Spring 2013 software release on the NWRT PAR is now operational. Among other things, this new software release adds and improves adaptive scanning capabilities, a very timely accomplishment as we enter the busiest season for radar data collection.
SINARAME (a consortium of government agencies involved in the development of Argentina's National Weather Radar Network) hosted the symposium in Buenos Aires on September 11-13, 2012.
In our last annual report to the NWS Radar Operations Center, we document the CLEAN-AP filter, which will become part of the NEXRAD network in the near future.
© 2013 Dr. Sebastian Torres. All rights reserved.
Last modified on 04/01/2013
