(H/T – Dad29)
Anthony Watts of Watts Up With That? is on the scene at the 2010 test of the National Severe Storms Laboratory’s Phased Array Radar. The current testbed is an adaptation of 1/4th of a Navy AN/SPY-1A phased-array radar, giving 90 degrees of coverage (as it has only one of the four arrays). It holds the promise of both increased warning times on severe storms because of increased speed of updates versus the current mechanically-steered WSR-88D weather radar and a dual mission of replacing the current generation of air traffic control radars.
The biggest impediment to implementation is going to be cost. The reported cost for the most-produced current version of the SPY-1 radar (the D model fitted to Arleigh Burke destroyers and a several different foreign navy ship classes) is somewhere around $11 million per copy, compared to an eventual per-unit cost of $2.5 million for the current WSR-88D weather-only radar. I don’t think too many TV stations are going to be buying their own copies.
