Oklahoma is supreme atmospheric observatory

By PETER J. LAMB - 11/4/2009


During the last 40 years, Oklahoma has become the world's leading atmospheric observatory.

Former Gov. Henry Bellmon's death inspired a review of his many laudable contributions to the state and nation. Missing from those accolades, however, was his crucial role in establishing the statewide 120-station Oklahoma Mesonet. With at least one weather station in each of Oklahoma's 77 counties, the Mesonet is unique among atmospheric observing systems worldwide.

Mesonet data are used routinely in agricultural decision making and the management of water resources and for the preservation of life and property during extreme weather events.

The Mesonet was a defining yet only intermediate step in the development of the supreme atmospheric observatory that now is Oklahoma. Beginning in the early 1970s, electrical engineers and meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Severe Storms Laboratory successfully adapted the military technology of Doppler radar for weather surveillance. The result was the national NEXRAD Radar Network that is used by forecasters to track rainfall and issue tornado warnings.

Recently, NOAA and University of Oklahoma engineers and scientists have upgraded the NEXRAD radars, designed and built several mobile radars for tornado and hurricane field research, and started another military-to-meteorology radar adaptation (Phased Array) that may replace the NEXRAD systems in 10 to 15 years. Concurrently, several short-range radars have been tested southwest of Oklahoma City.

Coincidentally, the U.S. Department of Energy — as the first step in its global ARM Climate Research Facility — initiated the Southern Great Plains (SGP) field site across much of Oklahoma and southern Kansas in the early 1990s. It is the world's largest climate observatory and the "crown jewel" of the U.S. Department of Energy's climate change research programs. It was located here partly because of anticipated synergy with the NEXRAD Network and the Mesonet.

As testament to its value, the SGP has survived and developed under varying presidential administrations and congressional majorities. The site has many instruments concentrated at its Central Facility near Lamont — in Grant County, 30 miles west of Ponca City, and within a few miles of the Bellmon home farm — plus 23 smaller instrument clusters scattered throughout its domain. To date, the cost of the SGP instrumentation and supporting infrastructure is approximately $21 million.

The latest stage in the building of the Oklahoma Atmospheric Observatory soon will occur with $12 million of funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This "stimulus" is permitting the U.S. Department of Energy to enhance significantly the cloud observing capability throughout its global ARM Climate Research Facility, including the SGP site's Central Facility. The resulting improvements in the computer modeling of future climate will have global impact.

All these components of the Oklahoma Atmospheric Observatory are being advanced by scientists and engineers housed in the new National Weather Center on the OU campus. This large —256,725 square feet — and expensive ($69.5 million) facility is scientifically unique because it not only co-locates but intermingles a wide variety of educational, operations, engineering, and research units from both OU and NOAA.

First envisioned more than 20 years ago, it became a reality only after an extraordinary effort by OU President David Boren to raise the necessary funding from state and federal governments.

The late 2006 completion and occupancy of the National Weather Center and imminent expansion of the ARM Climate Research Facility in Oklahoma substantiate the anticipation of the first ARM Chief Scientist in the mid-1990s, that "if we build it they will come." His borrowing of this signature line from the movie "Field of Dreams" now applies to the entire Oklahoma Atmospheric Observatory.

The atmosphere over Oklahoma is measured more intensively than any other area of similar size across the world. Oklahoma now is the role model for other states and nations in this regard, for which the foresight and persistence of David Boren and Henry Bellmon deserve significant credit.



Peter J. Lamb is a George Lynn Cross Research Professor of Meteorology and director of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies at OU. He has been the site scientist for the SGP since its inception in 1992.




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