The Dallas Fort Worth urban remote sensing network

The Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) and the North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) are embarking on a five-year, project to create the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) Urban Demonstration Network. The goals of the program are: 1) To develop high-resolution, three-dimensional mapping of the atmospheric conditions, focusing on the boundary layer, to detect and forecast severe wind, tornado, hail, ice, and flash flood hazards. 2) To create impacts-based, neighborhood-scale warnings and forecasts for a range of public and private decision-makers that result in measureable benefit for public safety and the economy. 3) To demonstrate the value of collaborative, adaptive X-band radar networks to existing and future National Weather Service sensors, products, performance metrics, and decision-making; and assess optimal combinations of observing systems. The centerpiece of the Dallas Fort Worth Urban Demonstration Network will be an 8-node, boundary-layer, dual polarized, multi-Doppler X-band CASA radar network. Additional in-situ and remote sensors will enable fusion of observations from all sensors. Data products will include single and multi-radar data, vector wind, Quantitative precipitation estimation, nowcasting, and analysis and numerical weather prediction products. Research and Research to operations in the DFW Urban Demonstration Network will occur in a quasi-operational environment. New technology and products will be integrated into operational platforms for evaluation by a variety of users during real-time weather events. Users include NWS forecasters and emergency managers; users from transportation, utilities, regional airports, arenas, and the media will be added in the near future. In this way, CASA´s multidisciplinary team - engineers, computer scientists, social scientists (sociologists, geographer, economist), meteorologists, hydrologists - will conduct “end-to-end” research from sensor observation,- to product development and validation linked to end user decision-making, response and value.