Weather Radar Network Benefit Model for Tornadoes
A monetized tornado benefit model is developed for arbitrary weather radar network configurations. Geospatial regression analyses indicate that improvement of two key radar parameters—fraction of vertical space observed and cross-range horizontal resolution—leads to better tornado warning performanc...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Meteorological Society
2020
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124005 |
| _version_ | 1826213147477803008 |
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| author | Cho, John Y Kurdzo, James M. |
| author2 | Lincoln Laboratory |
| author_facet | Lincoln Laboratory Cho, John Y Kurdzo, James M. |
| author_sort | Cho, John Y |
| collection | MIT |
| description | A monetized tornado benefit model is developed for arbitrary weather radar network configurations. Geospatial regression analyses indicate that improvement of two key radar parameters—fraction of vertical space observed and cross-range horizontal resolution—leads to better tornado warning performance as characterized by tornado detection probability and false-alarm ratio. Previous experimental results showing faster volume scan rates yielding greater warning performance are also incorporated into the model. Enhanced tornado warning performance, in turn, reduces casualty rates. In addition, lower false-alarm ratios save costs by cutting down on work and personal time lost while taking shelter. The model is run on the existing contiguous U.S. weather radar network as well as hypothetical future configurations. Results show that the current radars provide a tornado-based benefit of ~$490 million (M) yr⁻¹. The remaining benefit pool is about $260M yr⁻¹, split roughly evenly between coverage- and rapid-scanning-related gaps. Keywords: Tornadoes; Radars/Radar observations; Statistical techniques; Economic value; Geographic information systems (GIS); Societal impacts |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:44:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/124005 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T15:44:23Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | American Meteorological Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1240052022-10-02T03:47:01Z Weather Radar Network Benefit Model for Tornadoes Cho, John Y Kurdzo, James M. Lincoln Laboratory Cho, John, Y. N. A monetized tornado benefit model is developed for arbitrary weather radar network configurations. Geospatial regression analyses indicate that improvement of two key radar parameters—fraction of vertical space observed and cross-range horizontal resolution—leads to better tornado warning performance as characterized by tornado detection probability and false-alarm ratio. Previous experimental results showing faster volume scan rates yielding greater warning performance are also incorporated into the model. Enhanced tornado warning performance, in turn, reduces casualty rates. In addition, lower false-alarm ratios save costs by cutting down on work and personal time lost while taking shelter. The model is run on the existing contiguous U.S. weather radar network as well as hypothetical future configurations. Results show that the current radars provide a tornado-based benefit of ~$490 million (M) yr⁻¹. The remaining benefit pool is about $260M yr⁻¹, split roughly evenly between coverage- and rapid-scanning-related gaps. Keywords: Tornadoes; Radars/Radar observations; Statistical techniques; Economic value; Geographic information systems (GIS); Societal impacts United States. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Contract FA8702-15-D-0001) 2020-03-04T17:45:13Z 2020-03-04T17:45:13Z 2019-05 2018-08 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1558-8424 1558-8432 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124005 Cho, John Y. N. and Kurdzo, James M. "Weather Radar Network Benefit Model for Tornadoes ." Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 58, 5 (May 2019) © 2019 American Meteorological Society en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-18-0205.1 Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf application/pdf application/pdf American Meteorological Society American Meteorological Society |
| spellingShingle | Cho, John Y Kurdzo, James M. Weather Radar Network Benefit Model for Tornadoes |
| title | Weather Radar Network Benefit Model for Tornadoes |
| title_full | Weather Radar Network Benefit Model for Tornadoes |
| title_fullStr | Weather Radar Network Benefit Model for Tornadoes |
| title_full_unstemmed | Weather Radar Network Benefit Model for Tornadoes |
| title_short | Weather Radar Network Benefit Model for Tornadoes |
| title_sort | weather radar network benefit model for tornadoes |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/124005 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT chojohny weatherradarnetworkbenefitmodelfortornadoes AT kurdzojamesm weatherradarnetworkbenefitmodelfortornadoes |