A Lasting Legacy
The Advanced Radar Research Center was established at the University of Oklahoma nearly 20 years ago and grew out of the foundation of NOAA being in Oklahoma for more than 50 years. During that time, the ARRC has grown from three professors and several students to 20 professors, 25 full-time engineers and over 80 interdisciplinary graduate students from engineering and meteorology while still growing and expanding expertise in a variety of applications of advanced radars.
“The Norman weather community is very important and has built the ARRC into the largest, and I think the best, weather radar program in the world,” Palmer said. “This has only been possible because of the continued investment the University has made in this program, the interdisciplinary team of engineers and meteorologists we’ve built, and the collaborative culture we’ve created.”
In addition to being a national leader in phased array radar systems, Palmer and his team are also extremely focused on training, education, and economic development to enhance the University of Oklahoma and the state.
“When you develop transformational technology in a field that’s been around for decades, you have to also provide good training and education for the world to make full use. Our students get to learn and train on the most sophisticated weather radars in the world. When this technology gets deployed nationwide, our students will be ready to go,” Palmer said. “This technology is also drawing interest from potential industry partners that will result in jobs and economic opportunities throughout the state and nation.”
“The intellectual property generated by the Horus program has the potential to change the economic landscape of the state and bring OU technology to the world,” Díaz de la Rubia said.
As they continue to work on the next generation of weather radar and deploy the Horus system to capture the most high-resolution data available, Palmer hopes to leave a lasting legacy on the weather radar community.
“Our program has grown so big and has developed such sophisticated radars that I now want to have an influence on the nation’s future weather radar infrastructure,” Palmer said. “If OU could have even a small impact on the future, I’d be very proud.”
The Horus project team published their first article on the fully phased array weather radar in a special section on fully digital arrays in the inaugural issue of the journal IEEE Transactions on Radar Systems in June 2023.
Learn more about the Horus System and the Advanced Radar Research Center at the University of Oklahoma.
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