SANTA MONICA, CA – Human factors/ergonomics researchers at three
universities are working to ensure that improved weather radar
data gathered through the Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the
Atmosphere (CASA) project will help emergency managers make
faster, more accurate, and more confident decisions about
approaching severe weather. The researchers will present the
findings of their study at the Hilton San Francisco Hotel on
Thursday, October 19, 2006, during the HFES 50th Annual Meeting,
October 16–20. Since the 1990s, the weather community has used a
network of 158 nationwide Doppler radars to observe the
atmosphere. Emergency managers are usually glued to these
screens so they can predict approaching major weather systems.
There are limitations to the Doppler radar, however; low-
altitude areas where severe weather strikes the hardest--the
Gulf Coast, for example – are extremely undersampled. CASA
radars can detect weather systems lower to the ground, more
frequently, with shorter ranges, and with finer