Photos Seeing in Detail
To augment, and possibly replace, the nation's current weather radar system, McLaughlin wants to mount small antennas on top of existing cell phone towers, home roofs and other structures. Each new radar antenna would scan 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) using only a few watts of electricity in a couple minutes. The scientists also plan to overlap the radar, improving resolution more than 125 times and letting meteorologists get a better idea of what is happening inside a storm. McLaughlin estimates it would take about 10,000 of the new antennas to cover the entire nation, although 2,000 radars, spread in a semi-circle to the west (storms generally travel west to east) of urban areas, would cover most of the U.S. population. Currently the CASA group has one diamond-shaped test plot in Oklahoma covering about 7,000 square kilometers (2,700 square miles). Other sites are planned in Texas and Puerto Rico. A fully operational, nation-wide CASA system could be in place in 15 years. According to Harold Brooks, a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who is not involved in the CASA project, CASA has already seen several "interesting" storms and is generating lots of data for meteorologists to pour over. The problem lies in translating those huge amounts of data into information that people in the path of the storm can use. "Do I die here or do I die in the next room is not much of a choice," said Brooks. "We want people to be able to respond better than that." Related Links: Eric Bland's blog: Interior Design Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) |
advertisement
Put Discovery News on Your Site!
|
-
our sites
-
video
mobile
-
shop
-
stay connected
-
corporate
