phil882 Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 How is this the first time I am hearing about this? This seems like an obviously good idea that should be employed during dire weather situations such as a severe weather outbreak. http://thevane.gawker.com/this-one-little-programming-tweak-will-save-thousands-o-1592764166 Apparently SAILS was activated yesterday for the Sioux Falls, SD radar with obviously beneficial results of having radar scans every 2 minutes! This has pretty big implications for better warnings lead times! The change in the radar program means we lose some of those higher level scans (e.g. 19.5 degrees) when reflectivity at those higher scans is below a specific threshold. Thus when there is hail nearby a radar tower it still will be using those upper radar scans, but when they aren't useful at all, we can take advantage of the lower tilt scans more frequently! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icebreaker5221 Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 Seems like a super-useful technique to have, especially when there isn't anything particularly noteworthy close to the radar. I'm surprised someone hasn't thought of it sooner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Reimer Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 SAILS has been in use by several Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas radar sites since April. It has definitely been an amazing tool and useful in diagnosing low-level features this spring. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LocoAko Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 Great stuff. Looks like they're taking a cue from the adaptive scanning stuff research ongoing with phased-array. It isn't exactly the same of course, but the benefits seem obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil882 Posted June 18, 2014 Author Share Posted June 18, 2014 I'm just kinda surprised it hasn't gotten very much press... this is definitely the most substantial upgrade to radar scanning the since going to Dual Pol and its applications could be just as important! http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=mkx&storyid=102796&source=0 It looks like its been in development for a while, but only has more recently been sent out as an upgrade to the RPG. Either way, cool stuff that should have obvious utility! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdgwx Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe AVSET was added to RPG 13.x so it has been around for awhile. SAILS is what got added in 14.x. And yes, wicked cool. KOAX had it in time for the twin Pilger tornadoes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil882 Posted June 19, 2014 Author Share Posted June 19, 2014 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe AVSET was added to RPG 13.x so it has been around for awhile. SAILS is what got added in 14.x. And yes, wicked cool. KOAX had it in time for the twin Pilger tornadoes. I think you are correct... its just the combination of the two that allow a temporal resolution up to 1 minute 45 seconds, which is quite incredible considering VCP 12 temporal resolution is somewhere north of 4 minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Great Zo Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 AVSET = termination of higher slices when there's nothing to sample. SAILS = addition of an extra 0.5deg cut in the middle of each volume scan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
das Posted June 19, 2014 Share Posted June 19, 2014 Here is the decision brief from ROC: SAILS: https://www.roc.noaa.gov/WSR88D/PublicDocs/NewTechnology/SAILS_DQ_Presentation_Nov_2012.pdf ...and the FAQ on AVSET from ROC as well: AVSET: http://www.roc.noaa.gov/wsr88d/PublicDocs/NewTechnology/AVSET_FAQs030910.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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