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Weather Radar Technology Beyond NEXRAD (2002)

Chapter: Appendix B: Acronyms

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Acronyms." National Research Council. 2002. Weather Radar Technology Beyond NEXRAD. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10394.
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APPENDIX B
Acronyms

4DDA

Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation


AFWA

Air Force Weather Agency

AMS

American Meteorological Society

ARSR

Air Route Surveillance Radar

ASR

Airport Surveillance Radars

AWIPS

Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System


BDDS

Base Data Distribution System

BLM

Bureau of Land Management


CDM

Collaborative Decision Making

CIWS

Corridor Integrated Weather System

CODE

Common Operations and Development Environment

CONUS

Continental United States

COSMIC

Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate

CRAFT

Collaborative Radar Acquisition Field Test


DBF

Digital Beam Forming

DIAL

Differential Absorption Lidar

DMSP

Defense Meteorological Satellite Program

DOC

U.S. Department of Commerce

DoD

U.S. Department of Defense

DOE

U.S. Department of Energy

DOI

U.S. Department of Interior

DOT

U.S. Department of Transportation

DOW

Doppler on Wheels

DQA

Data Quality Analysis

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Acronyms." National Research Council. 2002. Weather Radar Technology Beyond NEXRAD. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10394.
×

DTASS

Digital Terminal Area Surveillance System


ELDORA

Electra Doppler Radar

EPA

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

ERS-1 and 2

European Remote Sensing Satellite


FAA

Federal Aviation Administration

FEMA

Federal Emergency Management Administration

FHWA

Federal Highway Administration

FPGA

Field Programmable Gate Arrays


GPM

Global Precipitation Mission

GPS

Global Positioning System


IOS

Integrated Observing System

ITWS

Integrated Terminal Weather System


JPOLE

Joint Polarization Experiment


LNA

Low Noise Amplifier


MESAR

Multifunction Electronically Scanned Aperture Radar

MMIC

Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit

MOTR

Multiple Object Tracking Radar

MPR

Microburst Prediction Radar


NAS

National Airspace System

NASA

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NCAR

National Center for Atmospheric Research

NCDC

National Climatic Data Center

NCEP

National Centers for Environmental Prediction

NEXRAD

Next Generation Weather Radar

NLDN

National Lightning Detection Network

NMOC

Naval Meteorological and Oceanography Command

NOAA

National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration

NPI

NEXRAD Product Improvement Program

NPS

National Park Service

NRC

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

NSCAT

NASA Scatterometer

NWP

Numerical Weather Prediction

NWS

National Weather Service


OAO

Office of Aircraft Operations

ONR

Office of Naval Research

OPUP

U.S. Air Force Open Principal User Processor

ORDA

Open Radar Data Acquisition

ORPG

Open-System Radar Product Generator


PUP

Principalmanned User Processor


QPE

Quantified Precipitation Estimation

QPF

Qualitative Precipitation Forecasting


RASS

Radio Acoustic Sounding

RDA

Radar Data Acquisition

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Acronyms." National Research Council. 2002. Weather Radar Technology Beyond NEXRAD. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10394.
×

RF

Radio Frequency

ROC

Radar Operation Center

RPG

Radar Product Generator


SAR

Synthetic Aperture Radar

SSM/I

Special Sensor Microwave/Imager


T/R

Transmit/Receive

TASS

Terminal Area Surveillance System

TDWR

Terminal Doppler Weather Radar

TRMM

Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission

TWT

Traveling Wave Tube


UAV

Unmanned Aerospace Vehicles

USAF

United States Air Force

USCG

U.S. Coast Guard

USDA

U.S. Department of Agriculture

USGS

U.S. Geological Survey

USWRP

U.S. Weather Research Program


VAD

Velocity Azimuth Display

VCP

Volume Control (Coverage) Pattern


WATADS

Algorithm Testing and Display System

WMO

World Meteorological Organization

WRC

World Radio Committee

WSDDM

Weather Support to Deicing Decision Making

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Acronyms." National Research Council. 2002. Weather Radar Technology Beyond NEXRAD. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10394.
×
Page 73
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Acronyms." National Research Council. 2002. Weather Radar Technology Beyond NEXRAD. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10394.
×
Page 74
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Acronyms." National Research Council. 2002. Weather Radar Technology Beyond NEXRAD. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/10394.
×
Page 75
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Weather radar is a vital instrument for observing the atmosphere to help provide weather forecasts and issue weather warnings to the public. The current Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) system provides Doppler radar coverage to most regions of the United States (NRC, 1995). This network was designed in the mid 1980s and deployed in the 1990s as part of the National Weather Service (NWS) modernization (NRC, 1999). Since the initial design phase of the NEXRAD program, considerable advances have been made in radar technologies and in the use of weather radar for monitoring and prediction. The development of new technologies provides the motivation for appraising the status of the current weather radar system and identifying the most promising approaches for the development of its eventual replacement.

The charge to the committee was to determine the state of knowledge regarding ground-based weather surveillance radar technology and identify the most promising approaches for the design of the replacement for the present Doppler Weather Radar. This report presents a first look at potential approaches for future upgrades to or replacements of the current weather radar system. The need, and schedule, for replacing the current system has not been established, but the committee used the briefings and deliberations to assess how the current system satisfies the current and emerging needs of the operational and research communities and identified potential system upgrades for providing improved weather forecasts and warnings. The time scale for any total replacement of the system (20- to 30-year time horizon) precluded detailed investigation of the designs and cost structures associated with any new weather radar system. The committee instead noted technologies that could provide improvements over the capabilities of the evolving NEXRAD system and recommends more detailed investigation and evaluation of several of these technologies. In the course of its deliberations, the committee developed a sense that the processes by which the eventual replacement radar system is developed and deployed could be as significant as the specific technologies adopted. Consequently, some of the committee's recommendations deal with such procedural issues.

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