Dual Polarization Radar is coming to a National Weather Service office near you.

What is it ?

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Well, for starters, it will improve data quality and give better rainfall rate estimation. It is also a vast improvement over the technology first implemented in 1988. Those aging radars, also known as the WSR-88D (Weather Surveillance Radar 88 Doppler), have been in operation all over the country.

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The retrofit plan to convert those radars, like the ones at Fort Dix and Dover, to the newer version called Dual-Pol will begin next summer.

The start time will begin roughly between July and October 2010 and finish around September 2012 (subject to funding). Alaska and Hawaii may have to wait up to September 2013 (also subject to funding).

The total retrofit contract cost ? $ 43 million dollars.

L3 Communications are the contractor.

Baron Services are the subcontractor.

It is still not known for sure when the radars at Fort Dix and Dover will get retrofitted within that time frame. However, one thing is certain.

Expect 2 full work weeks for radar downtime. That means once they start, they cannot put the radar back online until the job is finished (even if a nasty line of storms are coming during that two week period.) This could be a potential problem, as certain radars will be "operated on" during that two year period. The National Weather Service expects to fill-in the gaps with Terminal Radars like the one at PHL airport.


David


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