It is twelve o'clock on Friday, and a dull whine fills the air. The whine escalates slowly in volume, becoming a siren. The siren diverts people’s attention only a split second, but the meaning clicks and they lose interest.

Tornado siren tests are a part of life in tornado alley.

The threat of severe weather makes Oklahoma a hot spot for meteorological research. And more specifically they give OU, which boasts one of the top meteorology schools in the nation, a chance to appear on the radar screen of the meteorological world.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) and National Weather Service Radar Operations Center, Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Navy and OU are working together to develop a new type of weather radar that will triple the warning time of tornadoes and other storms, giving people more time to get to safety.

Frederick Carr, director of the School of Meteorology, said he is very excited about the project and hopes it will “develop the nation's next set of radars after NEXRAD.

Traditional forms of radar, like NEXRAD, send out a single beam of energy and take an average of six minutes to rotate and scan the volume of the atmosphere.

Multifunction Phased Array Radar (MPAR) does not send out a single beam, but instead “multi-tasks.” Using its flat antennae, it releases energy from as many as 4,000 points at the same time, making the same volume scan in under a minute.

Kevin Kelleher, deputy director of NSSL, describes this as “electronic steering” as opposed to “mechanical steering.”

This means that instead of using cogs and wheels to make the radar go round, the radar uses electricity to send out pulses that can go in any direction, eliminating the need for a beam to be steered and rotated, Kelleher said.

The radar is on OU’s north campus near Max Westheimer Airport. Kelleher said researchers use a remote control to determine its movements and test it. But it wasn't always a remote technology.

The MPAR was first seen in the 1970s in the form of AN/Spy-1, a radar device used by the navy on Aegis destroyer ships. Its purpose was to be a tracking device for missiles with the ability to track over 100 targets at a certain time, Kelleher said.

Now it tracks other forms of targets, such as the progression of storms and speedy changes in wind. But the MPAR still has a long road ahead of it.

Kelleher said the technology has a chance of becoming mainstream in the next fifteen years or so. That seems like a long time, but there is still testing and research to be done, he said.

The process will only go that quickly provided that proper funding is acquired, Kelleher said.

It will also take time to install MPAR units all over the country, not to mention organizing and training people to use the new radar. But Kelleher said he is confident.

“I am excited now that it's up and running and for what the future holds,” he said. “There is so much potential for this technology.”

Potential is more than any Oklahoman could wish for, especially during the tornado season.

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