System Will Improve Public Safety With Accurate Severe Storm & Tornado Warnings

NOAA has awarded a $49 million contract to Honeywell to upgrade the National Weather Services radar wind profiler network that will predict severe storms earlier and provide the public with more accurate warnings of upcoming storms.

“For nearly two decades, ground weather radar improvements have been mostly incremental – yet weather patterns and storms around the globe have become more severe,” said Vince Trim, president, Honeywell Technology Solutions, Inc in a Monday news release. “Honeywell is building a ground radar wind profiler network that can predict severe storms earlier and more reliably while better able to withstand hurricane force winds year after year.”

Honeywell’s work on the production phase of the Next Generation National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Profiler Network contract includes upgrading the NOAA network of wind profilers that provide upper air wind data for crucial weather forecasting tasks.

The NOAA Profiler Network has been operating continuously since 1992 and the equipment is now unsupportable. Honeywell’s solution, which includes upgrades to the antenna, RF hardware, signal processing, networking, and other system components will provide the technology improvements to bring the profiler network up to a supportable, maintainable, and reliable level.

The existing 404 MHz profilers will be replaced with 449 MHz systems. This will prevent the existing interference with search and rescue satellite-aided tracking transponders. Honeywell began building a prototype system in May 2009. Work on the three-year production phase begins March 2010 in Longmont, CO.

Honeywell is partnered on the procurement with DeTect, the radar manufacturer, and Wireless Edge, the system installer.

FMI: www.profiler.noaa.gov/npn,  www.honeywell.com