This project will continue the operation and maintenance of the CHILL radar as a national facility to support NSF funded science proposals, largely for the study of hydrometeor classification, evolution of storm systems and the study of storm microphysics.
A number of technical improvements will be made to the CHILL, including the addition of a second wavelength at X-band. The combined X and S band capability will support the partitioning attenuation of mixed phase regions between supercooled rain and wet ice. The improved system will be tested and evaluated along with the Collaborative and Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere, which is a NSF sponsored Engineering Research Center.
The project will also collaborate with the NCAR S-POL radar facility to develop a comprehensive Colorado Front Range radar laboratory, and couple the technical innovations at CHILL with the deployable capabilities of S-POL. The combined activity will make both facilities more cost-effective and operationally efficient.
CHILL will continue to improve and expand its Virtual CHILL educational outreach program. This program brings CHILL into the classroom at any institution in the country. The project will also continue to support REUs and sponsor Facility-supported 20 hour projects in atmospheric science, electrical engineering and related disciplines.
were improved considerably thereby providing better service to the research and education communities. These improvements included: (1) A new digital receiver / signal processing system was designed and built in-house. This hardware supports increased flexibility in data collection methodologies. (2) A custom-designed, dual-offset feed antenna was installed in 2008. This unique antenna minimizes off-axis radiation and thereby reduces data artifacts. (3) The library of educational example cases in the Virtual CHILL (VCHILL) system’s library has been steadily expanded. VCHILL continues to provide an efficient mechanism for the interactive viewing of CSU-CHILL data via the internet. (4) In a joint engineering effort with NCAR, a new radar system control Graphical User Interface (GUI) was developed. The new GUI allows for more intuitive control of data acquisition. The GUI has also been adopted by the NSF/NCAR S-Pol radar as a part of the Front Range Observational Testbed Network (FRONT) initiative. (5) The offset antenna’s feed assembly has been modified to permit the simultaneous collection of dual-polarization data at wavelengths of 11 and 3 cm. The addition of the shorter wavelength permits observations of the development and evolution of clouds and precipitation to be conducted in a wider range of meteorological conditions (i.e., tenuous ice clouds, etc.) Over the course of this grant, the CSU-CHILL radar supported eight NSF-sponsored programs and eleven internally-funded 20 hour projects. Data sets from the radar have been used by students working at the undergraduate through Ph. D. levels.
