University of North Dakota Faculty/Staff Newsletter

UND to help with weather forecasts during NWS radar outage

Posted by Editor • May 17, 2012 • Printer-friendly

UND’s WSR-74C polarimetric Doppler radar produces ultra-accurate images of what goes on in rain clouds. It’s an essential weather eye that helps scientists figure out, among other things, how storms develop and track.

For the next week or so, UND’s highly specialized radar unit will help local media get weather news to the public while the National Weather Service (NWS) upgrades its Grand Forks area radar to the kind already in use at UND. UND’s polarimetric Doppler radar images will also be used by Fargo TV stations to deliver vital weather info for this Saturday’s Fargo Marathon.

“NWS is upgrading the radar system near Mayville, part of a national system of planned upgrades, to a system like UND’s, which we’ve had since 2004,” said UND radar research meteorologist Chris Theisen. “This type of radar produces more information on the moisture in clouds so we can better predict what’s happening. Media have asked us to help out because the NWS Grand Forks area radar system will be down for the upgrade. We’ll step in to help local media provide the public with accurate weather information.”

“The upgrade at the NWS Grand Forks facility is expected to take about a week—it should be up and running early next week, if everything goes as planned,” said Theisen, an Upsala, Minn., native, who got both his bachelor of science and master of science degrees in atmospheric sciences from UND.

UND’s Polarimetric Doppler Radar unit is part of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences in the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences.

Useful links:

For more information, contact Chris Theisen, radar research meteorologist, Atmospheric Sciences, 777-6139 or ctheisen@atmos.und.edu.

-- Juan Miguel Pedraza, writer/editor, University Relations, 777-6571, juan.pedraza@und.edu.


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