Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)

Title: ITR/AP: Sensor Fusion and Networking of Radars over the Internet

Investigator(s): V. Chandrasekar (Principal Investigator), Steven A. Rutledge (Co-Principal Investigator)

Abstract
Through this Information Technology Research award, electrical engineers, computer scientists, and meteorologists at Colorado State University are developing a networked radar environment that will link multiple sensors in a distributed information environment and provide internet-based access to fused multi-dimensional data gathered from different radars and other meteorological sensors. It is an interdisciplinary project involving research in networking, radar technology, data fusion, and radar meteorology. Tasks include research on data fusion from multiple sensors with widely differing spatial and temporal scales and bandwidths, and novel methods of assuring data quality and data dissemination using principles of meta-data. The project will be centered on the CSU-CHILL national radar facility, a polarimetric Doppler radar operated by Colorado State University through a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. Other data to be employed in the networking experiments are from NEXRAD radars at the National Weather Service offices in Denver and Cheyenne, the CSU Pawnee radar, located 48 km north of the CHILL radar, from satellite data, and from a surface network of rain gauges and other instruments. Several other universities will participate as remote test sites by using the networked environment created by this project. The experiment provides unique educational opportunities in networking research, radar science and technology, data fusion, neuro fuzzy systems, cloud and precipitation physics, and severe storm research.