Wind Profiler Radar Installation NWS
The NWS upgrade to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Profiler Network (NPN) http://www.profiler.noaa.gov/npn/ improved operations began in FY 2007. The current wind profilers are vertically-looking radars, deployed and operating continuously since 1992. These radars provide upper air wind data for a variety of analytical weather forecasting tasks. The NPN measured wind profile information improves NWS operational warning and watches performance capability and improves aviation safety.
The NPN currently consists of 37 wind profilers. Five of these operate at a transmitter frequency of 449 MHz. The remaining 32 operate at an experimental frequency of 404 MHz and require a frequency change to 449 MHz for continued operation to prevent interference with the 406 MHz Search and Rescue Satellite-Aided Tracking (SARSAT) transponders carried aboard the European Union's Galileo constellation of global positioning satellites. The 404MHz wind profiler operations will become severely reduced when Galileo SARSAT services become fully operational in the near future.
Currently the NWS has 4 state-of-the art modern pulse Doppler 449 MHz radar systems, Detect Inc., RAPTOR model FBS-ST, in a storage area located at the National Logistics Support Center in Kansas City, MO. The NWS is interested in the installation, testing, validation, software & hardware maintenance as well as field maintenance of these four new radars.
The NWS will require each system be inventoried at the NWS National Logistics Support Center in Kansas City, MO, packed and shipped and delivered to each of the four locations.
The four wind profilers will be installed: one at Wallops Island, VA; and the other three in Alaska- near Anchorage, Homer and Talkeetna. The Talkeetna site has an existing wind profiler, which requires removal prior to the installation of the new unit. The other three locations are new sites and require site surveys and site installation drawings.
Mark Caban, Contracting Officer, Phone 303-497-6875, Fax 303-497-3163, Email [email protected]
