The best quality of PAR is the increased temporal resolution.  Updates every minute (or sometimes every 43 seconds) on the PAR sure beats the 4 minute updates on the 88D’s.  From the testing that we did, I truly believe these faster updates will lead to better warning decision making.  When comparing side-by-side the 88D 4 min updates with PAR 1 min updates, it was quite obvious that storm features and mesoscale evolutions can be better detected by the PAR.  As discussed in my session, specific storm threats/types that might benefit the most from this faster data are pulse storms, quick spin-up tornadoes, and microbursts.  However, I think warning decisions on all storm types will be improved by the PAR as well.

I definitely think the NWS should choose to implement PARs as soon as possible!  I think sharing PARs with the aviation community is a good idea to help with funding, however, I think it should be thoroughly tested to make sure it can handle such a work load.  Watching planes and severe storms with one minute updates seems like quite a job, but maybe I’m underestimating the PAR.  As for the PAR design, a cylindrical shape seems reasonable.  However, it would be very nice to have sensors on top of the cylinder to fill in the cone of silence.

PAR data is awesome, and I think forecasters in the field will really, really love this new technology!  I think forecasters of various skill levels and technological expertise will be able to adapt quickly to the new PAR data.  I think my PAR experiment group proved this point as we were a pretty diverse group, but all of us seemed to adapt well after just 3 or 4 days of working with PAR data.  Of greater concern might be forecaster fatigue…We seemed to get tired quicker working with the PAR data as we were constantly processing the new data every minute as opposed to every 4 min.  It was doable, but perhaps PAR radar operators may need to have more breaks or work radar for shorter periods than do current 88D operators.

Again, thanks for this opportunity to test our future technology.  I can’t wait to hear thoughts from the other PAR test groups!

Andrea Lammers (Lead Forecaster, NWS Louisville KY – 2010 Week 2 Evaluator)