V. Chandrasekar (Chandra), University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University, will be the featured speaker at the Braham Seminar, hosted by NC State's Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.  

Abstract: Rapid urbanization has made densely populated areas more vulnerable to events like urban floods. Therefore, monitoring the weather conditions in a timely manner with good spatial resolution is critical in terms of protecting lives and property. Radars have been used for weather applications over many decades. Long-range microwave radar networks are considered by many nations as an integral part of their weather sensing and forecasting infrastructures. With the introduction of new technologies, such as dual polarization, the sensing capabilities of these networks have been improved considerably over the past 30 years.

However, one limitation of today’s large weather radar installations is their inability to cover the lower part of the atmosphere because of the Earth’s curvature and terrain blockage. Aimed at enhancing weather sensing in where people live, the U.S. National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA) introduced an innovative, collaborative and dynamic sensing paradigm. Similar to monitoring at a local scale, global scale precipitation mapping is done using satellite borne radars and other sensing systems. This seminar will present a comprehensive overview of fundamental science, technology and system aspects of precipitation observing systems at local and global scale.