Collaborative Research: Enhancing Radar Meteorology Instruction with an Open, Flexible, Online Course

一个免费的、在线的、可定制的、大学水平的雷达气象学课程将与该奖项一起创建。该项目旨在教育公众、专业合作伙伴和学生有关气象雷达的用途、应用和局限性。来自公共和私人气象雷达的数据正在用于地方、区域和国家各级的日常决策，包括在龙卷风和山洪暴发等紧急情况下的决策。然而，并非所有气象雷达都具有相同的属性、能力或数据质量。如果气象雷达数据使用不当，可能会危及公共安全。为了优化雷达在决策中的使用，至关重要的是，所有天气雷达数据的最终用户都能获得高质量的指导材料，解释雷达产品的物理含义、准确解释和局限性。如果没有这种开放的教育材料，雷达气象教育的质量将保持不平衡，不利于那些可能无法获得昂贵的软件和教科书的学习者。雷达气象学课程将作为一系列课程发布在彗星气象教育（met）网站上，该网站已经提供了数百个免费的大气科学和地球科学课程。雷达气象学课程的设计将满足不同需求和能力水平的不同用户的需求，但也足够全面和详细，以纳入大学水平的教学。此外，课程将结合多媒体图形和虚拟现实（VR）渲染，允许用户将雷达感知的变量连接到大气过程和属性。所有的媒体资源都可以公开下载和重复使用。这种在线的多媒体方法将使雷达气象教育广泛地面向不同的用户，增加公众对气象雷达数据的能力和局限性的了解，并为决策者提供雷达使用的信息。该项目与美国国家科学基金会的使命一致，即支持教育，扩大不同学习者对科学的参与。这门多媒体互动课程将由普渡大学和大学大气研究公司的COMET项目合作创建，包括一系列本科水平的在线课程。该课程将放在COMET的气象教育（met）网站上，帮助气象学学生、专业合作伙伴和公众了解和应用偏振气象雷达产品，以及他们未来可能遇到的新型雷达系统架构（如相控阵雷达）。课程内容包括极化电磁散射、信号处理、气象雷达变量的物理解释、气象雷达及其数据的实际应用等。案例研究画廊将包括从观测许多大气现象的各种气象雷达的例子。该画廊将包括来自国家气象局操作雷达（WSR-88D），普渡大学的x波段天气雷达（XTRRA）的示例，以及来自国家大气科学中心地球观测实验室档案的实验/现场数据，延长了这些资产的寿命。此外，基于开源软件的示例将指导用户查询和分析气象雷达数据。在线课程将超越传统的以教科书为基础的雷达气象学教学风格，包括互动、多媒体和编程演示。课程将按照COMET的正式设计和开发过程进行开发。COMET将根据科学内容和调查结果确定相关的学习成果和目标，并选择有效的教学方法和设计范式。通过使用课前和课后评估、完成率和访问指标（由COMET自动收集）来评估这些课程的有效性。顾问委员会和学生用户测试参与者将复习课程。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A free, online, customizable, college-level course in Radar Meteorology will be created with this award. This project aims to educate the general public, professional partners, and students about the uses, applications, and limitations of weather radars. Data from public and private weather radars are being used in everyday decision making at local, regional, and national levels, including in emergency response situations such as tornadoes and flash floods. However, not all weather radars have the same attributes, capabilities, or data quality. If weather radar data is used inappropriately, it can potentially jeopardize public safety. To optimize the use of radar in decision making, it is critical that all end users of weather radar data have access to high-quality instructional material explaining the physical meaning, accurate interpretation, and limitations of radar products. Absent access to such open educational materials, the quality of radar meteorology education will remain uneven, disadvantaging those learners who may not have access to expensive software and textbooks. The Radar Meteorology course will be published as a series of lessons on the COMET Meteorology Education (MetEd) web site, which already hosts hundreds of free atmospheric science and geoscience lessons. The radar meteorology lessons will be designed to meet the needs of diverse users with different needs and ability levels, but also comprehensive and detailed enough to incorporate into university-level instruction. Additionally, the lessons will incorporate multimedia graphics and virtual reality (VR) renderings, allowing users to connect radar-sensed variables to atmospheric processes and properties. All media assets will be openly downloadable and reusable. This online, multimedia approach will make radar meteorology education broadly accessible to diverse users, increase public knowledge about the capabilities and limitations of weather radar data, and inform decision makers in the use of radar. This project aligns with NSF’s missions to support education and broaden participation in science to diverse learners. Comprising a series of online lessons at the undergraduate level, this multimedia, interactive course will be created through a collaboration between Purdue University and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research's COMET program. The course will exist on COMET’s Meteorology Education (MetEd) website and will prepare meteorology students, professional partners, and the general public to understand and apply polarimetric weather radar products, as well as novel radar system architectures (such as phased array radar) that they are likely to encounter in the future. The lessons will cover topics including polarimetric electromagnetic scattering, signal processing, physical interpretation of weather radar variables, and real-world applications of weather radar and its data, among other topics. A case study gallery will include examples from a variety of weather radars observing many atmospheric phenomena. This gallery will include examples from the National Weather Service operational radars (WSR-88D), Purdue University’s X-band weather radar (XTRRA), and experimental/field data from the National Center for Atmospheric Science’s Earth Observing Laboratory’s archive, extending the longevity of these assets. Additionally, open-source software-based examples will instruct users on the interrogation and analysis of weather radar data. The online course will expand beyond the traditional textbook-based style of teaching radar meteorology to include interactive, multimedia, and programming demonstrations. Lessons will be developed following COMET's formal design and development process. COMET will define relevant learning outcomes and objectives based on the science content and survey results and choose an effective instructional approach and design paradigm. The effectiveness of these lessons through the use of pre- and post-course assessments, completion rates, and access metrics (automatically collected by COMET). An advisory board and student user testing participants will review lessons.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.