ADAPTS IMPLEMENTATION : CAN WE EXPLOIT PHASED-ARRAY RADAR ’ S ELECTRONIC BEAM STEERING CAPABILITIES TO REDUCE UPDATE TIMES ?

It is well understood that high-temporal resolution data has the potential to improve the understanding, detection, and warning of hazardous weather phenomena. In fact, in a 2008 survey about scanning strategy improvements conducted by the US National Weather Service, 62% of forecasters indicated the need for faster updates. One of the strongest advantages of using phased-array radars for weather observations is their potential to produce data with very high temporal resolution. Naturally, this has been a major research and development thrust on the National Severe Storms Lab’s (NSSL) National Weather Radar Testbed PhasedArray Radar (NWRT PAR). One way to get faster updates without loss in data quality is by adaptively focusing observations to the regions of interest. This is the purpose of the Adaptive DSP Algorithm for Timely Scans (ADAPTS), which was first demonstrated in 2009. ADAPTS works by activating or deactivating individual beam positions within a scanning strategy based on elevation, significance, and neighborhood criteria. Preliminary evaluations of ADAPTS showed significant time savings, but also helped identify areas for further improvement. This paper describes the initial implementation of ADAPTS, its recent evolution, and outlines a plan for future enhancements towards obtaining the best weather observations in the shortest amount of time.