Enhancements to the National Weather Radar Testbed Phased Array Radar Storm Tracking Function

The National Weather Radar Testbed (NWRT) Phased Array Radar (PAR), located in Norman, Oklahoma, consists of a single antenna array capable of electronically scanning a 90degree azimuthal sector at any given moment (Zrnić et al. 2007). The antenna, mounted on a pedestal that can be commanded to move to any azimuthal position, allows operators to select the center of the best electronically scanned 90degree sector to follow areas of interesting weather. At the previous IIPS conference, an adaptive pedestal-control algorithm that automates the process of tracking an operatordefined weather feature was presented (Priegnitz et al. 2012). The algorithm provides feedback to the radar control software to adjust the antenna pedestal position in order to continuously keep the weather feature in the field of view. The tracking algorithm is part of a collection of new algorithms being used to demonstrate the adaptive capabilities of phased array radar in the detection and monitoring severe weather. These new algorithms make tracking more robust, improve data quality (Torres et al. 2011) and aid in the detection of weather features. Improvements to the ADAPTS algorithm (Torres et al. 2013) have helped reduce overall scan times, leading to faster detections. Heinselman et al. (2008) demonstrated the benefits of faster scan updates in the detection and monitoring of severe weather. Scan update times could be further reduced by scheduling smaller sectors that contain the most intense weather. The tracking algorithm was designed to support the tracking of a selected weather feature, providing sector information which can be used by future scan scheduling software (e.g., Yu et al. 2011). These algorithms will provide the framework for demonstrating adaptive scanning