Principle Investigators: Adam Houston
Where: University of Nebraska – Lincoln
When: 26 March – 9 April 2017
Facility: CSWR Doppler on Wheels and Weather Pod
 

Introduction

The 2017 University of Nebraska DOW Education and Outreach (UNDEO 5) project was a 14-day educational deployment of a Doppler on Wheels mobile radar conducted in the spring of 2017 and based out of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The principal objectives of UNDEO 5 were as follows:

1. Provide undergraduate and graduate students in Radar Meteorology an opportunity to use a sophisticated research radar to collect data for micro research projects;
2. Promote general understanding of weather radars and their application amongst non-major undergraduates;
3. Improve scientific literacy of non-major undergraduates by proving opportunities to learn about the scientific method and see examples of its application;
4. Exhibit a valuable NSF-supported facility to a broad audience of current and future scientists, members of the general public, and K-12 students.

During UNDEO 5 the 9 students in Radar Meteorology deployed DOW-8 1) near Brady, TX where data on a tornadic supercell were collected and 2) in western IA near the Eclipse Wind Farm. The DOW was also exhibited to 735 K-12 students, ~120 preschoolers, ~70 undergraduate students in the general-education Weather and Climate course, and ~60 members of the general public. The complete schedule of activities that occurred as part of UNDEO 5 is listed in Table 1.