New Radar to Provide Better Info on Rain

The University of Oklahoma’s newest radar, OU-PRIME (Polarimetric Radar for Innovations in Meteorology and Engineering) was completed in January 2009.

The radar serves as a research and development testbed for the university's Atmospheric Radar Research Center (ARRC) and is housed within the National Weather Center on campus.  

OU-PRIME is the highest-resolution C-band weather radar in the United States, and unlike most other Doppler radars, it can transmit waves both vertically and horizontally, revealing enhanced information about precipitation.  

With the addition of the C-band radar, polarimetric radar capabilities in Norman, Oklahoma, are now complete, with radars operating at X-, S-, and now C-band.  

The new system will also allow OU to be better equipped to establish extensive collaboration with countries in Europe and Asia because of those regions' primary interest in C-band polarimetric radars.

OU-PRIME is a true interdisciplinary weather-radar educational program, bridging meteorology and electrical engineering. The ARRC’s Radar Innovations Lab provides a workspace for meteorology and engineering students and faculty to develop new technologies for OU-PRIME and to solve fundamental problems in atmospheric remote sensing.

Established in 2004 and located on the OU Research Campus in the National Weather Center, the ARRC now includes 10 faculty members, more than 30 graduate students and two postdoctoral fellows and has more than $5 million in active grants.  

ARRC staffers are participating in the VORTEX2 effort currently underway to gain unprecedented understanding of tornadoes and how they form. For more information, see: http://www.vortex2.org/home/ and http://www.nsf.gov/news/newsmedia/vortex2/index.jsp.

For more information on ARRC, visit: http://arrc.ou.edu/.

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