Week #4 of EWP2010 wrapped up with continued CASA experimentation.

CASA:

During the week, CASA hosted the following National Weather Service participant:  Bill Martin (WFO Glasgow, MT).

A lack of severe weather during week #4 once again allowed ample time for careful review of archived case studies. Monday was spent reviewing CASA operations, forecaster-emergency manager communications, and familiarization of CASA visualization and scanning tools.  The remainder of the week was used for reviewing archived events and running through Don Rude’s comparison cases.

Many archived events were reviewed in displaced real-time, allowing for more “true-to-life” operational scenarios.   Several cases were reviewed twice – first with NEXRAD and TDWR data only, and then a second time including NEXRAD, TDWR and CASA and CASA products.   CASA products included 3DVAR and  NWP.   Topics raised throughout the week included emergency manager operations, data overload, multi-radar visualization, multi-sensor products, and NWP (“Warn-on-Forecast”) output.   One important issue going forward is how forecast information can be integrated easily and seamlessly into NWS operations.   Ideally, a data cube including all multi-sensor data will be available that shows real-time 3D analysis (at multiple scales) as well as projections into the future.   Otherwise, data overload could escalate as the number of radars and radar products are added.  As the case studies again showed, the low-level sampling and spatial resolution, as demonstrated by the CASA testbed, highlight many storm details that may be critical for future improvements in our warning capability.

The CASA experiment continues for one more week in the testbed before wrapping up for the spring.

PARISE:

PARISE has concluded its activities in the testbed for the spring.  In several weeks, an end-of-experiment quick summary will be prepared by the PARISE principle scientists.

A LOOK AHEAD:

Beginning 17 May, we will begin the second phase of our spring activities with two new experiments, a) an evaluation of experimental Multiple-Radar/Multiple-Sensor (MRMS) severe weather algorithm products, and b) an evaluation of GOES-R convective initiation and lightning mapping products.

Greg Stumpf, EWP2010 Operations Coordinator

Jerry Brotzge, CASA Scientist