First Deployment in the DOW

A quick update on the DOW visit! Today was my our day to deploy (Helen, Emily, Johan, and I) and we couldn't have better timing for our deployment. Our shift was from 5-7pm, we left around 430pm and made it to the site at 445pm. After the group before us finished up their scans, we took a few pictures with the DOW and jumped in to begin our adventure. Shortly after getting in the DOW, discussing our strategies and getting used to the controls, the front started to approach us.

When you first climb up the door to get into the DOW in can be very overwhelming. There are 2 main sets of computers, one is for the operator and the other is for the coordinator. Each person has their own set of duties while running radar sweeps. The operator is obviously the commander-in-chief. They are the person to run the scans. This includes switching pulses (which has to be done in a very specific order), choosing elevation angles to tell the radar to sweep over, changing the azimuth angles of the radar, controlling the speed at which the radar turns, controlling the highest and lowest elevation angles the radar will sweep at, and the list goes on and on. One can just imagine what this person's job would consist of. It is very overwhelming at times, especially when this is the first time you've done something like this. There are so many controls and buttons to play with! The coordinator can basically help with most of the above and are responsible for note-taking, which is super important so one can remember all the different things they did for their different scanning strategies. Things get a bit crazy inside the DOW, especially when you have a bunch of overzealous Meteorology students who are super excited about this project. For all of us this is the first time we've gotten hands on experience with radar, and for it to be the DOW, thats pretty big!

Me acting as the Operator of the DOW,
 running live radar sweeps.

The front moved through the area shortly after we started our shift. We started scanning only with PPIs, which are what you are used to seeing on a normal radar image. We did this because the front was still pretty far away, and there wasn't much to see in vertical cross-sections. As the storm moved closer we decided to add RHIs to our list of scans. After a little bit of editing and playing with the elevations angles and such, we finally were getting some interesting data. We saw Kelvin-Helmholtz instability/waves in the upper levels of the front. The bright band/ melting layer also made an appearance. This is the layer in the atmosphere in which the snow/ice begins melting and becomes coated in liquid water. At this layer, we see a jump in reflectivity, as water scatters the beam given off by the radar more than ice does.

Reflectivity and Velocity Image.

RHI scan showing vertical cross-section
of the front.

All in all we had such a fantastic experience on our first official DOW deployment and I was lucky to be paired with a group of enthusiastic people.  Dr. Kumjian stopped by to spend some time with us, and so did the new Meteorology department head, David Stensrud, and his wife. There is so much to take away from this experience and we here at Penn State are so lucky to have the opportunity to have hands on experience with the DOW for the next week. I am hoping to get out again sometime to scan maybe migrating birds, insects, or something else that can give us a cool signature. Even a wind farm would be fun, so we can see the velocity images and such. I want to leave you with a few more pictures from tonight of radar images and group photos! This photo above is with our deployment group, the Meteorology 434 (radar meteorology) professor and the DOW driver/operator, Traeger.

Picture of me standing in front of the DOW!!! Finally :)

                 

Example of the melting layer/bright band displayed in the vertical cross-section image of the storm.

The DOW 7.