A concerted effort was made to improve the public outreach impact of the DOW8 deployment from the previous TAMU educational deployment in Summer 2015. Two primary events were planned associated with the DOW8 being in the College Station area and later in the Houston/Galveston area during the REU/SOAP field experience.

College Station open-DOW event

A public event was held at an accessible location on campus adjacent to the Kyle Field football stadium on 15 July from 9 am to 12 pm (Fig. 8). Television, radio, and social media advertising were used, as well as signs along the major thoroughfare adjacent to the deployment location. In addition, the local Amateur Radio club, full of trained spotters and other weather technology enthusiasts, were invited to attend in conjunction with their nearby meeting, using it as a program element. A campus-wide visitation program by accomplished prospective students was also in progress, and our event was announced in sessions likely to have interests in the atmospheric sciences.

We were joined at the event by a storm-chasing vehicle, the Weather Edge, from the local CBS affiliate, KBTX. KBTX also provided additional media coverage. We estimate that approximately 70-75 people were able to tour DOW8 and the Weather Edge during the 3-hour event.

Figure 8. Outreach flyer and visitors to DOW8 during the College Station event.

Houston/Galveston open-DOW event

A public event was held adjacent to the NWS Houston/Galveston Forecast Office in League City, TX (between Galveston and Houston) on 22 July from 10 am to 1 pm (Fig. 9). This event included not only DOW8 demonstrations, but also demonstrations of the CSWR pod and the TAMU in-situ and upper air gear being used in the field experiment. Social media was the main advertisement, as the NWS has a huge Facebook and Twitter following. Again, ham radio volunteers associated with the NWS and Galveston County Emergency Management were targeted as they would be very interested in the radar technology of DOW8. NWS and Galveston County also provided many informative handouts and freebies in addition to those brought by TAMU.

This event had an excellent turnout, even though we had to temporarily suspend demonstrations due to lightning safety for a nearby cell. Many families with young children enjoyed the hands-on activities we prepared (e.g., making a cloud wheel) as well as touring DOW8. Several of the NWS employees came out on their off weekend day and brought family members. We estimate 125-150 people attended this event.