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MIRSL/Raytheon Collaborate on Phased Array Weather Radar

MIRSL is collaborating with Raytheon in the advancement of phased-array radar technology for weather applications.  Pictured at right is the "Low Power Radar," an X-band, dual-polarized, phased-array radar developed by Raytheon employing low power solid-state radiating elements.  The array consists of 2560 individual antennas, each with arbitrary amplitude, phase, and polarization control.  With support from the National Science Foundation, MIRSL is adapting t

Greetings from the West Coast

Several MIRSL alumni pose with DopplerScatt, a NASA Instrument Incubator Project led by Dragana Perkovic, Ph.D. 2008 (at left), of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  DopplerScatt was featured in the NASA Earth Science Technology Office's 2016 Annual Report (see Page 3).  Joining Dragana in the photo are UMass alums involved in the development of this instrument (L-R) Karthik Srinivasan, M.S. 2007; Mauricio Sanchez Barbetty, Ph.D. 2012; Ninoslav Majurec, Ph.D. 2008; and Chad Baldi,  M.S. 2014 (photo courtesy of NASA/JPL-CalTech). 

NASA launches mission led by MIRSL alum

MIRSL Participates in new tornado study: VORTEX-SE

MIRSL is participating in the 2016 Verification of the Origin of Rotation in Tornadoes EXperiment -- Southeast (VORTEX-SE) sponsored by NOAA's National Severe Storms Laboratory.  During March and April 2016, MIRSL is deploying two mobile radar systems to northern Alabama to study the environment both leading up to and during severe weather outbreaks that can produce tornadoes.  MIRSL is partnering with the Purdue University Department of Earth Atmosphere and Planetary Sciences in this project. 

The two mobile radars include a polarimetric Doppler weather radar that volumetrically samples storms that pass within 60 km of its deployment site and a continuous frequency-modulated radar that collects vertical profiles of the atmospheric boundary layer throughout the experiment period.  Further detail on the radar instrumentation is available here.  Current and past radar observations for VORTEX-SE are available here.

Two Student Paper Prize Winners at 2016 AMS Annual Meeting

Two students won best paper awards during the recent 96th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in New Orleans, LA.  Sheila Werth presented "Evaluating Parameters for Species-Based Classification of Bird Radar Echoes for Wind Energy Site Assessment" in the Seventh Conference on Weather, Climate, Water and the New Energy Economy.  Her paper won Best Oral Presentation in the student paper competition.  Aditya Nagarajan presented "On Learning Patterns Between GPS Derived Precipitable water fields and Radar Reflectivity Fields” which won Second

Prof. Siqueira joins Science Definition Team on $600-Million NASA NISAR Mission

 Prof. Paul Siqueira is one of 15 scientists selected by NASA to serve on the Science Definition Team of a $600-million collaborative mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). In a meeting in Toronto on September 30, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of ISRO, signed two documents to launch a NASA-ISRO satellite mission to observe Earth and establish a pathway for future joint missions to explore Mars.

MIRSL Reunion: Columbus Day Weekend 2014

Announcing a MIRSL reunion "The First Ten Years"  this October 12, 2014.  Please join us!  Tentative agenda is MIRSL tour, meet and greet with current students, and lunch around noon, afternoon softball game, dinner at Bub's BBQ, and ...  We hope to see many, or at least a few, graduates from the 80's and 90's, but all MIRSL alumni are welcome.  See the Facebook page for

Phased-array Weather Radar Deployed in Texas

  MIRSL students Krzsystof Orzel and Izzy Masiunas have deployed the first X-band phased-array weather radar atop an engineering bulding on the campus of the University of Texas, Arlington.  This radar is currently operating from this vantage point until June to observe severe weather concurrent with ongoing operations of CASA's Dallas/Fort Worth Urban Network.  Comparisons of the phased-array's measure

Moble X-band radar deployed to Dallas/Ft Worth for tornado season

 MIRSL's X-band polarimetric mobile Doppler radar, X-Pol, has been deployed to the Dallas/Ft Worth area to serve as a temporary node in CASA's Dallas/Ft Worth Urban Testbed. It is deployed at the site of a future CASA radar to be installed in June 2014. In the interim, the X-Pol radar will provide needed coverage of the western sector of the network as several major events are planned in the Dallas Ft Worth Area, including the NCAA Final Four, during the Spring 2014 tornado season.

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