Multisensor Agile Adaptive Sampling (MAAS): a methodology to collect radar observations of convective cell lifecycle

Abstract Multisensor Agile Adaptive Sampling (MAAS), a smart sensing framework, was adapted to increase the likelihood of observing the vertical structure (with little to no gaps), spatial variability (at sub-km scale), and temporal evolution (at ~2-min resolution) of convective cells. This adaptation of MAAS guided two mechanically scanning C-band radars (the CSAPR2 and CHIVO) by automatically analyzing the latest NEXRAD data to identify, characterize, track, and nowcast the location of all convective cells forming in the Houston domain. MAAS used either a list of predetermined rules or real-time user input to select a convective cell to be tracked and sampled by the C-band radars. The CSAPR2 tracking radar was first tasked to collect 3 sector Plan Position Indicator (PPI) scans towards the selected cell. Edge computer processing of the PPI scans was used to identify additional targets within the selected cell. In less than 2 min, both the CSAPR2 and CHIVO radars were able to collect bundles of 3-6 Range Height Indicator (RHI) scans toward different targets of interest within the selected cell. Bundles were successively collected along the path of cell advection for as long as the cell met a pre-determined set of criteria. Between 01 June and 30 September 2022 over 315,000 vertical cross-section observations were collected by the C-band radars through ~1,300 unique isolated convective cells, most of which were observed for over 15-min of their lifecycle. To the best of our knowledge, this dataset, collected primarily through automatic means, constitutes the largest dataset of its kind.