Ball Aerospace to design weather antennas for NCAR

BROOMFIELD — Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. will design systems for the Boulder-based National Center of Atmospheric Research’s Airborne Phased Array Radar program, which Ball describes as “the center’s next-generation tool for gathering critical weather data.”

The antenna program “will dramatically enhance the scientific community’s ability to capture detailed observations of the formation and behavior of high-impact weather events like tornadoes, hurricanes and blizzards, ultimately allowing for more accurate forecasting models and improved alerts to the public,” Ball Aerospace said. 

The APAR design team includes scientists from Colorado State University and other research universities.

“Once completed, the aircraft’s mission will be to fly around high-impact weather events at a safe distance, gathering data on their structure, dynamics and microphysics from deeper inside the storm and at a higher spatial resolution than current radar technology allows, serving as the foundation for improved prediction models,” Ball said.

on Facebook on LinkedIn