News Archive

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research today announced that it will award research institutions and small businesses who submitted winning research proposals through the Air Force's Young Investigator Research Program (YIP). The YIP is open to scientists and engineers at research institutions across the United States who received Ph.D. or equivalent degrees in the last five years and who show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research. The objective of this program is to foster creative basic research in science and engineering, enhance early career development of outstanding young investigators, and increase opportunities for the young investigators to recognize the Air Force mission and the related challenges in science and engineering. ARRC Faculty Member, Dr. Hjalti Sigmarsson, was awarded the YIP award for "Reconfigurable, high-Frequency Circuit Components using Phased Change Materials". The purpose of this research project is to develop new, innovative, electronically-tunable substrate materials. These materials will enable frequency and loss tuning of resonating elements that can be used to realize agile radio frequency hardware for future generations of communications and radar systems. Congratulations, Dr. Sigmarsson!

ARRC PhD student, Phillip Stepanian, was awarded and accepted a Marshall post-graduate Fellowship. The support from the Fellowship will allow Phillip to conduct biological radar research in the United Kingdom after completing his doctoral studies. Marshall Fellowships are prestigious and post-doctoral Fellowships are particularly competitive as they cut across all disciplines and awards are typically limited to one award per year for post-doctoral researchers across the US.  Looking over the award winners of the past 15 years, Phillip appears to be the first atmospheric scientist to be awarded this honor in that time frame.

OU Research Scientist Dr. Pierre Kirstetter is cited as the recipient for the OU/NSSL team involving Drs. Jonathan Gourley and Yang Hong for two NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Robert H. Goddard Awards, both for the category of Exceptional Achievement in Science. One award is for contributing to the success of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Ground Validation Team and the other as part of the algorithm teams (Radar, Radiometer, Combined, and Merged). GPM is an international network of satellites that provide the next-generation global observations of rain and snow. OU/NSSL scientists have worked at the interface between the satellite algorithm development and the ground validation team to improve precipitation estimates across the entire globe. These distinguished awards are given annually at NASA GSFC after an extensive nomination and review process. The awards will be presented on March 17, 2015 at Goddard Space Flight Center.

Overview: Professors at the University of Oklahoma (OU) in the Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC) invite potential graduate students to visit OU. Support for travel and lodging support is available.

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NHFG is the only group fosters a focus within AGU on studies of geophysical hazards, including droughts, earthquakes, fires, floods, heat waves, landslides, space weather, storms, tsunamis, volcano eruptions, impact by near-Earth objects, and related events. The Group promotes fundamental research into the links between extreme natural hazards and dynamic processes on Earth and in space; real-time and long-term monitoring of active Earth processes; quantitative natural-hazard modeling; studying predictability of natural extreme events, their operational forecasting, and reducing predictive uncertainties; and implementation of effective strategies and designs for hazard mitigation and disaster management worldwide. The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is an international non-profit scientific association of Earth and Space Scientists with more than 62,000 members worldwide.

Recently, the American Meteorological Society announced its 2015 Award Winners, Fellow and Honorary Members. The Advanced Radar Research Center is proud to boast that faculty member and Executive Director, Dr. Bob Palmer is among the recipients to receive the fellowship award.Fellows are those persons that have made outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences or their applications during a substantial period of years. Fellows represent the top 0.2 % of the membership of the society.

As part of the Global Precipitation Measurement Ground Validation Team, Drs. Pierre Kirstetter, Jonathan Gourley, and Yang Hong received the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Robert H. Goddard Award , for the category of Exceptional Achievement in Science.  These distinguished awards are given annually at NASA GSFC after an extensive nomination and review process. The award will be presented on March 17, 2015 at Goddard Space Flight Center. Dr. Yang Hong previously received NASA Headquarter Group Achievement Award in 2008.

ARRC Faculty member, Dr. Jessica Ruyle, wed Joseph Howard last Saturday, January 3, 2015 at St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church in Norman, OK. Congratulations to the newlyweds!

Jessica Ruyle, assistant professor in ECE, tells you why engineering at OU is so exciting. In addition to the "massively cool stuff" she gets to do on a daily basis, she further explains the benefits of studying engineering at OU. Solve problems. Provide solutions. An engineering degree will get you there.

Published on December 23, 2014 by CRC Press, Radar Hydrology: Principles, Models, and Applications provides graduate students, operational forecasters, and researchers with a theoretical framework and practical knowledge of radar precipitation estimation. The only text on the market solely devoted to radar hydrology, this comprehensive reference:

• Begins with a brief introduction to radar
• Focuses on the processing of radar data to arrive at accurate estimates of rainfall
• Addresses advanced radar sensing principles and applications
• Covers radar technologies for observing each component of the hydrologic cycle
• Examines state-of-the-art hydrologic models and their inputs, parameters, state variables, calibration procedures, and outputs
• Discusses contemporary approaches in data assimilation
• Concludes with methods, case studies, and prediction system design
• Includes downloadable MATLAB® content

Flooding is the #1 weather-related natural disaster worldwide. Radar Hydrology: Principles, Models, and Applications aids in understanding the physical systems and detection tools, as well as designing prediction systems.

Editorial Reviews "This is the first book on radar hydrology written by hydrologists. Whereas the excellent knowledge of radar technology by the authors permits an adequate coverage of the principles of rainfall rate estimation by radar, their hydrological background allows them to provide a unique message on the benefits (and on the remaining challenges) in exploiting radar techniques in hydrology... In a clear and concise manner, the book combines topics from different scientific disciplines into a unified approach aiming to guide the reader through the requirements, strengths, and pitfalls of the application of radar technology in hydrology—mostly for flood prediction. Chapters include excellent discussion of theory, data analysis, and applications, along with several cross references for further review and useful conclusions."