Phased Array: The Weather Radar of the Future

[@tornadotrx]

Man all these folks at NOAA remind me we're in good hands. Can't wait for this new generation of radar tech!

[@the_darkgameryt]

same!

[@Divinex1x1]

cant wait for the fast radar updates also hi trx

[@JesseLikesWeather]

Oooh, if it isn't the legend himself!

[@Member00101]

NOAA won’t exist within the next 4 years thanks to Trump. Getting rid of NOAA in favor of private companies that are for profit is part of there plan for this administration.

[@lschooner]

Too bad Trump and Project 2025 plans to dismantle and shut down NOAA.

[@CCJ1998]

Hopefully, with these upgrades, NOAA can do something about the radar holes that plague people who live too far from big metro cities. Too many times, storm chasers are behind a twister that doesn't even show up on radar because it's one of these holes.

[@benwalter4842]

Exactly! I hate when I am following a chaser live stream and I cannot see what they are talking about on radar. Those radar holes in Texas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Kansas, Alabama, and Arkansas especially should not exist (since they are literally in major tornado hotspots).

[@oooolah]

This would mean they would need to install more radar sites, or even stronger ones. Sadly, most sites are geared towards where more people live, which makes sense, but also we need to backfill as well. Need more money to do that unfortunately.

[@TypicalBlox]

Phased array technology won't be deployed for at least another 10-20 years, despite being ready for over a decade. Regardless of political sides, it's just really hard to convince the government to spend millions, possibly billions on upgrading current infrastructure to save ~85 lives per year. (NOT SAYING I SUPPORT THAT!!! just saying why it's probably taken so long) And for more proof the NWS tweeted not that long ago that they estimate it will be deployed sometime in the mid-2030s

[@Hexnilium]

What holes are you referencing?

[@f1nch1312]

Just came to say the same thing!

[@piconick79]

watching this is making me almost cry in happiness.......watching a storm evolve in such a high resolution and framerate is just the most beautiful thing!!!!!

[@tylerburton__]

Seriously hope NOAA isn’t in future danger, this technology would be truly revolutionary and these people have such an important role in u.s. meteorology and meteorology in general.

[@Drosera420]

We'll be lucky if they don't appoint the CEO of Accuweather or MTG as head of NOAA at this point.

[@mrbillybob444]

It is in danger, it is one of the things explicitly mentions as for privatization in P2025

[@progenitor_amborella]

Seriously. I'm very concerned about the future of NOAA and FEMA. These politicians are trying to eradicate everything tied to the mention of climate change.

[@joeblow5214]

​@mrbillybob444 The same project that was shut down by the very incoming president that you have been programmed to hate.

[@x3wildcard]

I don't understand why everyone is afraid of privatization. Truly.

[@scottstocking6935]

Phased array radar has been around since the 1960's ! The real muscle is in the digital analysis capability available today. Looking forward to better storm analysis and warning capability.

[@lbgstzockt8493]

For real, it feels like the F-35 radar is fifteen years ahead of this

[@lilpenguin092]

​@@lbgstzockt8493 considering each plane is 7 figures, it better be

[@socialwill]

What was not mentioned was the NEXTAD we have today is vastly upgraded from what launched in the 90s. The higher resolution and new features came over time and this just tells you how good it was. Hopefully the same could be said for what comes next

[@toxicpineapple2610]

I wonder by how much the NIDS data formats will change from the current WSR-88D standards. I’m working on a library to process data files, and I’m hoping it’ll be an easy transition heh.

[@brcshephard]

Twisters was spot on in the next step! 🌪️

[@network_king]

I never even heard of PAR radar before that. I just kind of blew it off as Hollywood doing it's thing.

[@WXmarcus]

This is such an exciting advancement to radar technology. Excited to see it in use!

[@emrobotics3635]

Amazing stuff!! So inspired to see this new innovation! It would be unfortunate if the new government in America hinders its development

[@loganhelland4073]

literally why would it

[@joeblow5214]

It won't.

[@nathanwells4809]

Man this Phased Array Radar must be some kind of future technology since we are implementing it now in 2024. Certainly not an 80 year old technology

[@trippstreehouse]

lol

[@brycedarnell7395]

You guys are absolutely awesome. Hopefully Project 2025 doesn't come to fruition because NOAA is one of the most important things I know.

[@philliphutcheson4219]

😂🤣😂🤣😂NOAA has been busted for cooking its data for 30+yrs. Don’t believe their lies.

[@chads9776]

p2025 is not trumps plan. his plan is posted on his website and mentions nothing about noaa. trump has agenda47, its on his website

[@zachkurth]

Goodness, you have been disinformed.

[@brycedarnell7395]

@ what

[@philliphutcheson4219]

@@brycedarnell7395 you… have been misinformed… BADLY.

[@SamCyanide]

Cool. Need more videos like this for PR

[@wpankey57]

I love it. I can't wait until Radar Omega and Radar Scope and utilize it.

[@Enjoyer.762]

@wpankey57 Maybe the new phase array will do a better job detecting QLCS nadoes. NWS needs to install additional radars to plug existing radar holes.

[@sahebplays3589]

The biggest advancements we still may face to work phased array is demonstrating low level feedback of supercellular storms, particularly the velocity product but I'm exhilerated to see flexibility of the new radar tools perform over this!

[@Michael_Livingstone]

Here in Canada, environment Canada relies on their weather rocks and issues warnings after the storm or whatever passes.

[@devinrenshaw9083]

elect better politicians maybe i mean i really cannot speak we just put orange man back in but i still feel justin is really really a awful leader lol for almost every single reason as well not even a few

[@benwalter4842]

I hope these update quicker than the current radars do. I literally hate waiting ten minutes or more for the next major update (and at least five minutes for the next minor update).

[@dziban303]

@@benwalter4842 low level scans are updated in ~90 seconds for some precip modes, I think you need to use a better radar app

[@ailivac]

That's kind of the whole point. They can electronically steer the beam faster without having to mechanically spin the antenna around and therefore update the scans more often. Who knows what the final data products will look like though; just because they're getting raw data quicker doesn't mean they'll publish it that fast.

[@filibertogarced]

Nice work 🎉 Thanks for keeping us informed

[@phoenixnfa]

Hi NOAA, has there been any talk of using PAR in conjunction with smaller but more numerous radar sites? Similar to the north texas CASA radar project? One locality has a partner radar mounted on top of a water tower.

[@notices_demons]

There was a Naval Commander (O5) I met once that had helped set up and fly data gathering missions with the NOAA. He told me tales of flying an aircraft right into the eyes of hurricanes and circling them to allow the NOAA instuments aboard to do their job.

[@Snowstar837]

Imagine the future when a fleet of self driving DOWs could go out to get multiple angles on tornadic storms 😍

[@tornadoclips2022]

Or put them on high tech military drones But rain and hail is still an issue

[@PeterTeehan]

Sounds right on PAR! Cant wait to see it used on a mobile device too!

[@reaIixx]

Great now shove it into 3 mini versions, point them at a tornado, and rename the company to StormPAR. In all seriousness its great to see advancment like this

[@The-Drone-Hobbyist]

Was that a Twisters reference?

[@reaIixx]

Potentially

[@OMAN3307]

@@The-Drone-Hobbyist y e s

[@The-Drone-Hobbyist]

@@reaIixx I was thinking that. Haha

[@The-Drone-Hobbyist]

@@OMAN3307 thought so

[@joeblow5214]

Been telling everyone I can about this tech to happen since I heard about the SPY-1 that was loaned to NOAA in 1999. Near instant horizion scans alone are worth the investment.

[@ronkirk5099]

I wonder how the long term maintenance costs and the projected service life for phased arrays would compare to the current radar systems?

[@hardrocklobsterroll395]

No moving parts and all solid state so probably pretty good if the materials people pick the right adhesives

[@P_RO_]

Fewer moving parts means lower wear rates, and it's the mechanicals which usually fail with WSR88. It will be a magnitude of order cheaper to run in the long term.

[@StormsandSaugeye]

1:28 I appreciate that the meteorologist has Radarscope up on his phone lol *AND* He has GR analyst up on his computer (I have GrLevel 3)

[@oooolah]

What is GR if you don't mind me asking? I have Radar Scope and Radar Omega lol.

[@StormsandSaugeye]

@oooolah gr analyst is a level 2 radar data analysis which carries native support for dual polarization high prf radar data. It's been something of a gold standard of analysis software for radar data. Gr simply stands for Gibson ridge. Who are the guys who made it. Worth the investment. Radar omega is an ok application but lacks a lot of the capabilities and customization abilities the gr suites have. Btw GRlevel 3 is only 85 dollars and it's a one time purchase.

[@DriftHyena]

@@oooolahGibson ridge radar software

[@gregarious119]

There's a nice radar dead spot between 5 sites located in Berks County, PA. Would make a great test bed for the new tech!

[@mexyreast433]

About time Phased Array radars where coming to public Weather use.

[@Erik-rp1hi]

Sorry, I did not see how it scans a 360 deg sweep. I saw it move up and down but not rotate?

[@maxmyzer9172]

The PAR they showed is like the current dish - the entire assembly shown rotates, there is a motor under it.

[@tazmanzzzz]

When doing the math on how big the improvement is for how fast the information is gathered its a 61% reduction on how long it takes. That is mind blowing and would help so much with the rapidly changing weather and climate.

[@mickeyhage]

How come the US is so far behind on weather prediction compared to Europe?

[@maxmyzer9172]

I cannot wait, this is going to be a game changer! I just hope weather software can adapt to changes like partial volumes (both in elevations and radicals scanned), when they might currently only support SAILS.

[@fbiagentmiyakohoshino8223]

this is pretty exciting. having near real time radar updates, and zero moving parts. this is great. imagine doppler on wheels with this kind of radar

[@Conradlovesjoy]

Doppler is completely different

[@maxmyzer9172]

@@Conradlovesjoy I believe PAR still used the doppler effect.

[@deltacx1059]

So does the horizontal axis of your old dish nounts only work in a single direction?

[@maxmyzer9172]

Right, it only transmits in the direction the dish is pointing in. The ATD they showed is also like this, where they need to point the antenna in the correct direction - however, unlike the dish, PAR can digitally steer the beam and change the beam shape, so they can point it in the generally correct direction, and get a scan. Dish radar needs to move the entire antenna for this. Another PAR they showed (1:00) had 4 antennas, so could steer a beam in each direction, rather than moving the antenna. This could be more costly, I imagine.

[@deltacx1059]

@maxmyzer9172 it's a bit strange to me how they complained about having to wait for the dish to rotate back around to get more scans of a big storm, you would figure they could stop spinning and start sweeping just that direction. Phased array just seems like overkill.

[@oisiaa]

Will this change invalidate all existing weather models? How will modern AI weather prediction models adapt to a new data source?

[@maxmyzer9172]

Very few weather models are AI, and new weather models will have more data to work with. Existing models that use radar will likely just get a portion of the new data, which would mimic the old radar (eg, instead of all the new volumes, they only give one from every 5 minutes)

[@piconick79]

I WOULD DO ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING TO BE INVOLVED IN THIS :D but im stuck in Australia

[@HurricaneJahya]

FABULOUS 🎉🎉🎉

[@TallTexasGMan]

I am surprised you didn't speak about the CASA project that DFW jurisdictions have been funding for the last decade. I was on the initial public safety team that brought this technology to DFW. I am sad to see that it still hasn't been made a commercial product.

[@beauroberts-ym7yp]

going to change the game!

[@confuseatronica]

so this will be called RADNEX?

[@DustInTheWindAZ]

Is this phased-array radar going to alleviate "radar holes" caused by obstructions (mountains, buildings and distance) that we are experiencing today. These 'radar holes" are blocking visibility of approaching storms. Case in point: KIWA is a NEXRAD facility that is located just off of Phoenix/Mesa Gateway Airport in Gilbert, AZ. It has a HUGE 'blind spot" to the south, created by the San Tan Mountain range, and where many of our monsoon storms develop during the summer months. Why can't these radar locations be placed on mountaintops, much like the TV antenna array on South Mountain, that can be "seen" all over the Valley of the Sun? Is there some kind of interference preventing the radar from being placed on South Mountain?

[@maxmyzer9172]

Obstructions are unlikely to be fixed by PAR. Finer beam control might allow for them to look just over the top of them, however. I don't know for certain why they don't place it on mountains, but there are a few reasons I can think of: -> Negative beam elevations looking down from the mountain would cause all sorts of issues -> The radar will have higher risk of damage PAR doesn't inherently solve radar coverage issues (like lack of low-level coverage in some areas) either. However, my understanding is that the existing radars cannot be manufactured new. PAR is a big enough change that it might be able to be, so new radars could be built to cover such blind spots.

[@mencken8]

So the phased array, which the military has used for decades, will now be available for weather scanning. Good to know. Priorities.

[@NWW116]

Very cool!

[@BluewaterBottoms]

Will this add Power Steering to future hurricanes? Asking for a red state friend.

[@paco_WX]

make sure radarscope gets support

[@chuckfinley3152]

How long has the airforce been using this in planes?

[@mobius7089]

2007 or so?

[@BakuganBrawler211]

I hope that congress gets some more radar stations set up especially near me I live where three different radars collide making tracking accuracy far lower, which led to an unwarned tornado that struck Dresden, Ohio.

[@SkyTurnsPurplePhotography]

What happens when the weather is close to the radar scans? Current doppler looks like garbage

[@newton21989]

4:47 i was looking away from the screen and thought my weather radio was going off

[@IHaveYouNowx3]

beamforming seems to be in alot of new tech from cell phones to wifi to radar. I wonder whats next?

[@VVILLIAM2143]

NOAA is extremely important and needs better funding, same goes for NASA

[@progenitor_amborella]

Phased Array Radar being combined with the FACETs warning system has me highly exited about the future. But I'm also very concerned about the future of NOAA and FEMA given how the authors of a certain political playbook want to eradicate everything that has ties to the mention of climate change. Of actual science.

[@BGTech1]

Exactly my thoughts

[@KMHrock89]

I learned about FACETs a few months ago and man I wish I could be involved with that. Yes, we are poised for great things when it comes to lead times and upping the game. I wouldn’t worry about the future of NOAA there’s way too many cons to getting rid of it. Same for FEMA.

[@maxmyzer9172]

FACETS and WoFS, yep!

[@shubinternet]

I wanna see what the next Gary England does with this stuff.

[@tornadoclips2022]

I bet we will get something even better than phased away

[@SyrupSplash]

I cross all my fingers and toes a certain someone doesn't cut your funding, NOAA is the best in the world!

[@StayProteus]

I’m no expert but I’m pretty certain this **technology** isn’t at all new, phased arrays have been used by the military for decades. This is probably not operating at the same power level or frequency as the military ones for a multitude of reasons and it’ll be designed to detect different things (cloudskis instead of ruskies) and thus have different design focus but the knowledge and tech has been around so I wonder why it’s just now becoming a thing or maybe I’m way off and the military phased arrays aren’t as complex (press x to doubt) and this is like reinventing the wheel

[@DanielDaniel1]

It’s about time to retire the WSR-88D. Having essentially live data will be a game changer

[@evanfinch4987]

Should've been implemented 10 years ago.

[@AJL15N]

Wonder is this tech will come to the FAA and replace our TDWRs

[@jrmcferren]

From my understanding TDWRs are already using Phase array technology.

[@AJL15N]

@ our TDWRs don’t they still use traditional antennas

[@maxmyzer9172]

I don't know if TDWRs really need it, but it would be nice, yeah

[@Conradlovesjoy]

Finally getting Aegis for weather.

[@dziban303]

With the boneheads coming in I kinda doubt NOAA will be getting any new stuff

[@Enjoyer.762]

Really? Where did they run a campaign against improved weather radar? The current boneheads have spent billions going to Ukraine and Israel. Potato Joe on his way out is spoiling to start WW3.

[@Enjoyer.762]

The current boneheads also decided to withhold FEMA relief for people in FL, GA, and NC based on politics.

[@notices_demons]

We can see the depth of your thought processes here. Not much deeper than mud puddles when you examine the fact that simple minded bipartisan American politics rules that smooth-brain you got in your noggin.

[@allenfogarty2384]

Trump will replace NOAA with his sharpie pen.

[@Enjoyer.762]

@@allenfogarty2384 Trump won bigly brah.

[@douginorlando6260]

I hope they use phased array radar to create 3 D weather maps. Different altitudes have different weather and it makes a huge difference to see the weather front in 3 dimensions. For example, a tornado … show us a vertical cross section of the tornado real time. And for a weather front moving in, show us the cross winds & temperatures & humidity at different elevations. There is no way to accurately understand weather without understanding the 3 dimensional nature of weather. The phased array radar weather data will be very useful in developing better weather models to understand and predict weather.

[@jrmcferren]

Radar can't show us temps and humidity. PAR should allow for 3D observation, especially if data from PAR sites can be more easily combined than NEXTRAD sites.

[@owenfarmer1588]

so cool!

[@dragon00536]

Ooooh so that's what I've been seeing at the Lockheed up in New York somewhere. Looking like big soccerballs

[@adamclabaugh1945]

I've seen enough, double the budget

[@Blixillion]

This is exciting

[@doxielain2231]

Will we still be able to pick up bird migration on doppler radar? Also, I love Alt-NOAA! We're going to need you over the next four years

[@Gevoface]

Wow so Stormpar in Twisters wasn’t completely made up 😂

[@mmeeppEXTRA1]

when is it coming 1 year? 2years just mouths? when?

[@markviking98]

ERROR! Your $29.99 subscribtion is ended, their may or may not be flash flooding occurring in your area

[@Chris-ut6eq]

👍 👍

[@TroyRubert]

“look at those cavemen go It's the freakiest show”

[@VVILLIAM2143]

Y'all need to talk to DARPA or DOD for a better radar.

[@paco_WX]

lets go

[@BGTech1]

This is super exciting but under the next administration, this will never happen

[@mobius7089]

Are you that brainwashed?

[@PhotoStormMediaOfficial]

Imagine having access to 35 seconds radar updates during a storm chase... 😍

[@overtoke]

don't let the next admin eliminate noaa

[@x3wildcard]

Privatization is not elimination. Don't let the fearmongers scare you.

[@overtoke]

the goal of the next admin is to dismantle the country and make it defenseless.

[@onrch]

​@@x3wildcardOf course let's make a system that people rely on to live and people trust to make literal life or death choices for them competitive

[@x3wildcard]

@@onrch Unironically yes. Name one thing the government does well. Mail? Trains? Policing? Ballot counting? Seriously name just one.

[@x3wildcard]

@@overtoke The goal of the next admin is to dismantle the unelected bureaucratic state and put the power back in the hands of the people and states. You know, the way the constitution is written. Congressional non-delegation is about to be back on the menu.

[@rudylittlewolf]

When radar and weather technology can actually inhibit the destruction that comes with severe weather, then we're talking helpful. Otherwise, there is no stopping the disastrous outcomes that destroy property. Sure, lives may be able to be saved quicker, yet there will still be people who don't pay attention to warnings and/or choose to ignore the instructions on taking safety precautions. Just like upgrading your phone because of a new feature, yet it still does the same thing as a phone device.

[@mobius7089]

Except this is an absolutely massive upgrade, we're talking seconds per scan rather than minutes, and in higher fidelity.

[@minethebuilder3121]

Storm PAR irl!!!

[@BGTech1]

Just watched that movie last night. The idea of using phased array radar for weather has been around a while now

[@Dionysus56]

If the next administration gets rid of this idk what we’d do

[@the_samsung_simp]

please project 2025 don't defund this

[@Nicholas-f5]

defund

[@the_samsung_simp]

@@Nicholas-f5 thanks

[@KILLKING110]

Cue the idiots calling weather service "militarized" over the use of Phased Array Radar

[@Zeakthecat]

i hope this new phased array tech gets put into practice the next 2 years, and put more than enough radars up per region so that if 1 radar gets taken out another will fill in the gaps. too many radar holes and radars thats too far away from a storm to really make a huge difference for some communities. hopefully this new system addresses that as well. however i doubt it will get implemented fully, if trump and the Republican Party has anything to say about it.

[@marlinweekley51]

Great tech great output- yet stupid people will still stand out in a tornado for a tik tok clip. You can’t fix stupid - but you can obviously vote for it.

[@cmikeinkc6905]

The NEXRAD radars might be the best in the world right now but they are not the best we can do and lives are lost every year because we don't upgrade. Too much can happen in the 300 seconds it takes for NEXRAD to update and with fast-moving tornadoes that's 290 seconds too slow.

[@Aiophgy]

Isn’t this just surplus military radar

[@jrmcferren]

That's what they started with. Weather radar development has started with air surveillance radar. The early weather radars (WSR-57, WSR-74) were based on air surveillance radar. The WSR-88D was built to not only upgrade them to doppler, but also to digital processing.

[@larry785]

But Trump will fix everything by eliminating NOAA and replacing it with old grandpa - If grandpa's knee hurts that means a storm is a comin'

[@quaternarytetrad4039]

Doubt

Notice how they didn't give any dates

[@Shredxcam22]

imagine if the effort was put into these that was put into the military surveillance equivalent.

[@tone_bone]

"Project 2025 calls for breaking up NOAA, commercializing forecast operations"

[@mobius7089]

And you believe that?

[@sanamandingra]

I think it's terrifying that we're only now jumping on phased array. We really are set up for destruction and failure. But cool radars guys...

[@RangerDobby]

We got AEGIS weather radar before GTA VI

[@jordanranstead3016]

F35 weather system

[@blaydCA]

Hopefully NOAA won't be gutted on day one of the Orange Jesus Typhoon.

[@railgap]

... OF THE FUTURE?? Phased array radar was invented in 1960. Maybe don't brag about your cutting edge, NOAA.

[@krisshnapeswanipeswani3190]

Phased array weather radar. This is first in the world

[@-Mike]

How much will this cost me? 50% of the time y'all can't even predict sky conditions and temps correctly. I blame Sebastian specifically. Mainly for that terrible pun.

[@maxmyzer9172]

1. NOAA is always improving. Forecasts have improved a lot. Check again. 2. NOAA costs the average taxpayer a few dollars a year. If you want huge tax cuts, look at the biggest item on the budget instead.

[@in4merATP]

Somehow I doubt any "upgrade" project will cost less overall than the original. Not to say the program wouldn't be worth the end result, but stop with the obviously false statements.

[@RT-qd8yl]

Gotta justify keeping the budget as big as possible. Lol at our from a government point of view, not a human one 😄

[@mobius7089]

To be fair, mechanically there's no moving parts.

[@SyAnimates]

Guys new radar might dropped!

[@hardrocklobsterroll395]

Damn too bad y’all are going private SMH

[@nitsudocsicnarf347]

The hypocricy.