The CSU-CHILL National Facility

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The project is to continue the operation and maintenance of the CHILL radar as a NSF National Research Facility. Most of the activities remain the same. CSU/CHILL will continue to participate and expand its activities in the Front Range Observational Network Testbed (FRONT) in collaboration with the NCAR S-Pol, Pawnee (CSU), KFTG (Denver), and KCYS (Cheyenne) radars. CHILL will operate with S and X bands, making it a unique dual frequency, dual polarized feed radar that is expected to open new avenues of research. CSU will continue to have VCHILL, a educational outreach activity that allows instructors from anywhere to obtain historical CHILL data and to operate the CHILL in real time and display in the classroom setting.CSU will continue its successful 20 hour research projects, REU projects for engineering and meteorology students and to provide in-house research activities. The facility is available to the research community through competitive research grants and to the broader reserach community through approved cost reimbursable projects.During year 2 of the Cooperative Agreement, however, NSF will convene a radar workshop and site visit to CHILL. The results of that workshop and the site visit will determine if in the third year NSF will solicit a proposal to continue to operate the radar as a National Facility or to use the third year as the phase out year for the CHILL facility. New technologies, such as phased array radars, mobile radars may make the CHILL radar unnecessary. The unknown factor is the addition of the X-band to the CHILL's S-band. The results during the first two years will help determine how much new science can be obtained.