Integrated Radar, Mobile Mesonet, Deployable Pod capabilityĭOW6 and DOW7 have the maximum transmit power of any mobile X-band weather radar, employing dual 250 kW transmitters, for maximum sensitivity at the greatest range.

Truly mobile (while actually moving) multiple-Doppler capability.

ĝual-frequency dual-polarization for 2x faster ZDR, Rho-HV, Phi-DP.

ĝual-frequency dual-polarization capability for simultaneous LDR, ZDR, Phi-DP, Rho-HV.

Narrow-beam, (0.8-0.9 degree) rapid-scan capability.

Three-radar, fast-scan, narrow-beam, multiple-Doppler network.The DOW radars made the first 3D maps of tornado winds and debris, the first maps of multiple vortex structure in tornadoes, the first maps of anticyclonic tornadoes discovered hurricane boundary layer rolls, made the first observations of secondary rear flank downdrafts, mapped mesocyclone circulations in lake effect snowbands, observed how misocyclones along boundaries affected convective initiation, obtained the only comparisons of radar-measured winds, in-situ winds, and damage in tornadoes. Reliable, high-quality, accurate and carefully navigated DOW data have been at the core of analyses of winter storms, convective initiation, hydrology, severe wind/damage relationships, orographic precipitation, hurricane boundary layer structure, tornado genesis and structure and other analyses. Solid (stippled) black lines are ρhv (ZDR) signatures. Even though observing geometry and wavelength are different, excellent agreement exists between the DOW and 88D, but much finer-scale detail is evident in the DOW6 data. Inter-comparison of dual-polarization products between the S-Band WSR-88D (top) and the X-Band DOW6 (bottom) radars during the El Reno tornadic supercell at ~2319 UTC. Thus, there was a need for finescale observations of these phenomena in order to better understand the mechanisms involved in their formation and maintenance. Finally, these phenomena frequently occur on timescales of seconds to minutes and thus are sampled poorly by typical surveillance radar scanning strategies. Near-ground (<300 m AGL) structures are often undetectable due to the masking of the transmitted beam by topography and obstructions, vertical beam spreading, and earth curvature. This results in finescale (sub-kilometer) structures being unresolvable due to beam spreading between stationary radars and the targets. Additionally, many interesting physical processes occur at sub-kilometer scales, but the ranges between the phenomena of interest and the stationary radars are almost always quite large. These are difficult to measure with traditional stationary meteorological radars, due to temporal and/or spatial limitations. Many important meteorological phenomena (such as tornadoes, hurricanes, microbursts, dust devils, etc.) occur infrequently and/or very near the ground. In addition, the DOW Facility can deploy up to five GRAW radiosonde stations, as well as multiple pole-mounted ground value mesonet stations. The DOW facility consists of four mobile radars (DOW6, DOW7, the Rapid-Scan DOW (DOW8) or just DOW8 depending on its configuration, and C-band DOW), three support vehicles outfitted as mobile mesonets, a mobile office and maintenance/repair van and an array of quickly-deployable weather stations (Pods) that can be carried at low cost in the support vehicles/mobile mesonets (see image below). Projects utilizing the DOW radar facility They have deployed at 18 universities and participated in extensive nationwide outreach tours impacting over 100,000 students. The DOWs are frequently requested and allocated for education and outreach. DOWs have been requested for several field programs (e.g., PECAN (2015), OLYMPEX (2015), SNOWIE (2017), RELAMPAGO (2018) and PERiLS (2021)). The DOWs have been among the most widely used radar facilities, participating in over 30 field campaigns since VORTEX1. Prior to then, the DOW Facility operated as the Center for Severe Weather Research (CSWR). The DOW radar facility has served the scientific community as part of the University of Illinois since 2020. The Development of Mobile Radar: Doppler on Wheels

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