John Schroeder – Texas Tech University Mike Biggerstaff – Oklahoma University

1. John Schroeder – Texas Tech University Mike Biggerstaff – Oklahoma University Dan Cecil – University of Alabama-Huntsville Kurt Gurley – University of Florida Andrew Kennedy – Notre Dame University Marc Levitan – Louisiana State University Forrest Masters – University of Florida Mark Powell – NOAA/AOML Hurricane Research Division Josh Wurman – Center for Severe Weather Research

2. Introduction • The US weather observing network is coarse and prone to failure during natural disasters. This reduces the ability to monitor decaying weather conditions. • As a result, researchers began conducting experiments at landfall in the late 1990s by deploying • Portable weather stations • Mobile Doppler radars • Surge/wave gauges

3. Portable Weather Stations ← Deployed < 30 minutes FCMP LSU Deployed < 3 minutes ↓ TTU

4. Mobile Doppler Radars CSWR UAH UO CSWR TTU UO Ka-, X- and C-BandRadars

5. Surge and Wave Sensors ND USGS USGS ND ↑ Just offshore (~10-15 m of water) ↑Along the coast and inland ↑

6. Field Deployment Programs • Collective firsts (not exhaustive) • Mobile radar deployment during Fran (1995) • Tower deployments during Charley/Bonnie (1998) • Real-time data transfer during Isabel (2003) • Radar/tower co-deployment during Isabel (2003) • Offshore surge and wave measurements during Ernesto (2006) • With few exceptions, these programs have operated independently.

7. Successful… but Optimal?

8. Digital Hurricane Consortium Our nation’s ability to characterize the severity of and determine the appropriate response to a hurricane impact is based on how much and how quickly information can be interpreted, analyzed, and relayed.

9. Digital Hurricane Consortium • Create an umbrella organization that provides: • an adaptable network of observing platforms that can be delivered on demand to measure wind, surge and wave. • “global” coordination at landfall • integrated real-time datasets • a vehicle to attract national funding, while allowing individual programs to maintain their identity and meet their research deliverables

10. Planned Activities • Meet with potential users to understand needs • Develop adaptable campaign strategies tailored to user needs, storm characteristics, coastal geography, etc. • Enable real-time data transfer of integrated datasets • Develop a common baseline of performance metrics, real-time QA/QC and standardization procedures • Create dual-Doppler wind fields; standardized with tower measurements • Conduct rapid and comprehensive damage documentation

11. Implications • Real-time monitoring of weather conditions • Aid NHC and NWS Weather Forecast Offices • Help provide answers to critical emergency management questions • Provide real-time inputs to wind field analyses, loss models, etc. • Minimize the uncertainty in the time-varying wind, surge, and wave estimates • Forecasting and model verification • Helps define resiliency of the natural and build environment, the value of mitigation efforts, etc.

12. Thank your for your time and attention For more information contact: John Schroeder, Texas Tech University Forrest Masters, University of Florida