Future Federal Aviation Administration operational needs for WSR-88D architecture

The planned improvements to the Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D), specifically the Open System Radar Data Acquisition (ORDA) and Open System Radar Product Generation (ORPG) upgrades, are essential for the WSR-88D to meet the Federal Aviation Administration´s (FAA) operational needs for weather data. These operational needs have evolved since the initial specification of the requirements for the WSR-88D, due to both experience gained with the current system, as well as new operational needs that derive from the FAA´s planned acquisition of new weather processing systems, such as the Weather and Radar Processor (WARP) and the Integrated Terminal Weather System (ITWS). Examples of those new operational needs are improved detection of icing, hail, and turbulence, higher temporal and vertical resolution of the layered composite products, and improved signal processing for higher overall product fidelity. Many of these new operational needs will also require research in radar meteorology to be performed