The Anniversary History of Weather Radar Research (40th) in the U.S. Air Force

Detection of radar echoes from the optically clear atmosphere in the early 1950s led to vigorous debate within the weather radar community as to their origins. Members of this program later used the radars at Wallops Island, Va., to observe the clear atmosphere, detecting the tropopause by radar in 1966 and confirming that most of the clear air echoes were due to turbulence. Research through the 1950s and 1960s led to improved understanding of stratiform rain systems, hurricanes, and severe convective storms. The first rain parameter diagram was developed in 1957. Doppler radar was used in 1961 to produce the first wind profile from radar measurements and in 1968 to make the first radar observation of a mesocyclone. The research on severe storm dynamics, both at the Air Force radar site in Sudbury, Mass., and in collaboration with the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Oklahoma, laid much of the foundation for the Next Generation Weather Radar NEXRAD program. Field work at Wallops Island and at Kwajalein Atoll in the 1970s in support of Air Force reentry vehicle test programs included the first display of analysis products generated from radar data by a computer in real time. In recent years much effort has been devoted to the development of data analysis algorithms for NEXRAD. Other current work includes measurement of wind profiles by UHF Doppler radar and the development of polarization diversity techniques for documenting hydrometer microphysical parameters and processes.