Enterprise company storms OU with new weather radar

An Enterprise company has developed some of the most cutting-edge tornado detection and weather radar technology in the world.

Enterprise Electronics Corporation sold their newest innovation, a dual polarmetric radar, to the University of Oklahoma in May for $2.5 million. The project, which will have a global impact, is set to be commissioned on the OU campus Dec. 19.

Click here to view a video about the radar.

Chris Goode, EEC’s vice president of marketing and business development, said the emerging technology will offer earlier, more valid detection of storms, and improve the accuracy of tornado and flash flood prediction.

The C-band, high-resolution, dual polarization radar, is the first of its kind in the U.S., and allows more valid precipitation detection than standard Doppler radar, Goode said.

“The way I describe the radar to people is it looks like the crosshairs of a rifle,” said Goode. “It lets us know if the precipitation is rain, or hail, or if it’s debris or something else.”

The University of Oklahoma is considered a world leader in the fields of engineering and meteorology in part because of outstanding research units like the Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC) and The Center for Analysis and Prediction of Storms (CAPS).

According to Keith Brewster, a CAPS senior research scientist, the collaboration with EEC will give students more hands-on learning.

“We have a need for more practical experience, not just theoretical,” said Brewster. “We want to work with Enterprise. They are the leaders. We hope that this is the beginning of a relationship with EEC where it’s not just providing hardware, but an exchange of data.”

According to Goode, Enterprise and any other regions affected by severe weather will reap the benefits of the research partnership with the university.

“The research that comes from OU will have a trickle-down effect,” said Goode. “It will be just more data points to feed into the forecasting system.”

“One of the first things we will do is create an advanced tornado detection algorithm,” said Robert Palmer, ARRC director and OU meteorology professor, “which will greatly benefit the whole Southeast region.”

EEC President Allyson Turnbull said the partnership with OU is vital.

“They are number one in training,” she said. “Their students have the freedom to pursue the next technological level.”

Enterprise Electronics Corporation, founded in 1971, occupies a 53,000 square-foot campus near the south side of Boll Weevil Circle. The company holds several patents, developed the first commercially used Doppler radar and has an 85-member staff comprised of engineers, manufacturers, software developers and marketers.

EEC has more than 900 radars in 90 countries and sends its team to install everywhere from mountaintops in Korea, military operations in Iraq, an airport in Greece, to oil rigs off the African Coast.

“We have ten radars in the Amazon rainforest region alone,” said Goode.

Turnbull said that 80 percent of the company’s business is international.

“The Navy and Army are big customers right now,” said Turnbull, adding that many of their installations are classified. “We should be a source of pride for this community, it’s benefiting the world.”

Enterprise Electronics Corporation: http://www.eecradar.com/

OU College of Atmospheric and Geological Sciences: http://ags.ou.edu/