ULM Polarimetric Doppler Weather Radar

Description:

In 2012, ULM was awarded a $3 million grant through the Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOSHEP) to acquire a Doppler weather radar (press release).  In 2015, Enterprise Electronics Corporation (EEC) was awarded the winning bid to manufacture and erect ULM's weather radar.

The ULM weather radar is a scanning polarimetric Doppler radar operating at S-band with a beam width of 0.95°.  In addition to being an education and research tool for the Department of Atmospheric Science, the radar will fill a low-level NEXRAD coverage gap over northeast Louisiana and southeast Arkansas (see before and after).  The radar data will be available to the National Weather Service to help serve their mission of protecting life and property in this region, which is important considering the ArkLaMiss is prone to severe weather (see climatology of tornado formation within 100-km of the ULM radar location).

ULM is the only primarily undergraduate institution in the United States with a S-band polarimetric Doppler weather radar.  Our students receive hands-on instruction at the undergraduate level on radar operation, in addition to advanced radar analysis and interpretation techniques.  This uniquely positions our graduates for jobs that require radar operation and/or analysis skill.

Radar Groundbreaking:

Officials from GOSHEP and ULM, including faculty and students, officially broke ground on the weather radar on May 6, 2015 (press release).  Click here for more photos from the groundbreaking.

 

Current Status (9/18/17):

The ULM polarimetric S-band Doppler weather radar is operational with base products available on our weather data site.  The radar is in use by the region's emergency managers and the National Weather Service offices in Shreveport, LA and Jackson, MS.

 

The radar has been featured in the following publications and conference presentations:

Murphy, T.A., C. Entremont, B. Hughes, D. Lamb, and M. Mayeaux, 2017: Early Operational Successes of the University of Louisiana at Monroe's S-band Polarimetric Doppler Radar. 38th Conference on Radar Meteorology, Chicago, IL, Amer. Meteor. Soc. [PDF]

Murphy, T.A., A.T.C. Hanks, and E.A. Pani, 2015: The University of Louisiana at Monroe's Polarimetric Doppler Radar - Teaching, Research, and Operations. 37th Conference on Radar Meteorology, Norman, OK, Amer. Meteor. Soc. [PDF]