Purdue University to install new radar
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — Indiana is getting more radar coverage just in time for severe weather season.
Not only will it help the public, but it will also help to educate future meteorologists at Purdue University.
“So, what were are going to get is called an X-band weather radar, which means it’s got a slightly shorter wavelength than the radars the National Weather Service uses. It’s a little more nearsighted. It can see out about 50 miles,” said Robin Tanamachi, assistant professor of Earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences at Purdue.
The radar will be placed about two blocks from Ross-Ade Stadium, on the top of Wang Hall. Tanamachi said it was about a 6-month process of getting the funds together for the university to purchase the half-million-dollar equipment. But, it will go a long way in helping to educate the next round of meteorologists.
“We’ll be able to collect local data and can actually build up a local climatology of it, so our students will get first crack at those datas as they come in. They can use those for their own projects in classes, and we’re looking forward to basically bringing graphics to the data to the public on a public website so that anyone in the greater Lafayette area, or anyone in the world, really, can click on our website and actually see what’s going on weatherwise around Purdue.” Tanamachi said.
So how does this benefit you? More data and radar coverage is never a bad thing, and, as of now, Lafayette sits in a tough spot between 3 radar coverage areas.
“We’re in kind of a Bermuda Triangle of radar coverage. Although weather radars that are operated by the weather service, they physically they cover Purdue, but because of the curvature of the Earth, the radar beams are actually meeting about a kilometer and a half above our heads right now, so that’s about 3,000 feet above our heads. So, it’s missing all kinds of sensible weather that we’re experiencing here at the surface” Tanamachi said.
In simple terms, we’re not getting the complete story of what is happening from cloud to surface that far away from the radar. At that distance, a tornado could be occurring and not being represented on a radar scan.
“So, we’re actually going to fill a lower atmospheric gap here over Purdue and northwest Indiana, so we’re excited to supply these data, not just to our local area, but also to emergency managers in the area who are on the look out for things like tornadoes and microbursts, and also to the National Weather Service directly so that they can augment their warning and forecasting processes” Tanamachi said.
The new radar has been slated to be installed over spring break. The radar information can be accessed to the students and the public as well, as soon as it goes live this spring.