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

合作研究：通过开放、灵活的在线课程加强雷达气象学教学

• 批准号: 2303654
• 负责人: Andrea Smith
• 金额: $ 32.7万
• 依托单位: University Corporation For Atmospheric Res
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-09-01 至 2028-08-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2303654&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Enhancing; Radar; Meteorology

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.

该奖项将创建一个免费的，在线，可定制的，可自定义的大学水平课程。该项目旨在向公众，专业合作伙伴和学生教育天气雷达的用途，应用和局限性。每天在当地，地区和国家级别的决策中使用了来自公共和私人天气雷达的数据，包括在紧急响应情况下，例如龙卷风和闪存地板。但是，并非所有的天气雷达都具有相同的属性，功能或数据质量。如果不当使用天气雷达数据，它可能会危害公共安全。为了优化雷达在决策中的使用，至关重要的是，天气雷达数据的所有最终用户都能访问高质量的教学材料，以解释物理含义，准确的解释和雷达产品的局限性。无法获得此类开放的教育材料，雷达气象教育的质量将保持不平衡，这使那些可能无法获得昂贵的软件和教科书的学习者处于不利地位。雷达气象学课程将作为彗星气象教育（Meted）网站的一系列课程出版，该网站已经举办了数百个免费的大气科学和地球科学课程。雷达气象学课程将旨在满足具有不同需求和能力水平的不同用户的需求，但也足够全面且详细，以纳入大学级别的指示。此外，这些课程将结合多媒体图形和虚拟现实（VR）渲染，使用户可以将雷达感应变量连接到大气过程和属性。所有媒体资产都可以公开下载和重复使用。这种在线的多媒体方法将使潜水用户可以广泛访问雷达气象教育，增加公众对天气雷达数据的能力和局限性的了解，并为决策者提供雷达的使用。该项目与NSF的任务相吻合，以支持教育并扩大对科学的参与，向潜水者学习。该多媒体课程将通过普渡大学和大学大气研究公司的彗星计划之间的合作创建，包括一系列在本科层面的在线课程。该课程将存在于Comet的气象教育（Meted）网站上，并将准备气象学专业的学生，​​专业合作伙伴和公众来理解和应用极化天气雷达产品，以及新颖的雷达系统体系结构（例如阶梯式阵列雷达），以便他们将来可能会遇到。这些课程将涵盖主题，包括偏振电磁散射，信号处理，天气雷达变量的物理解释以及天气雷达及其数据的现实应用以及其他主题。案例研究库将包括观察许多大气现象的各种天气雷达的例子。该画廊将包括来自国家气象局运营雷达（WSR-88D），普渡大学的X波段气候雷达（XTRRA）的示例，以及来自国家大气科学中心观察实验室档案中心的实验/实地数据，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对天气雷达数据的询问和分析。在线课程将超越传统教科书的教学风格，包括互动，多媒体和编程演示。在Comet的正式设计和开发过程之后，将开发课程。彗星将根据科学内容和调查结果来定义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。这些课程通过使用前后评估，完成率和访问指标（由彗星自动收集）来实现这些课程的有效性。顾问委员会和学生用户测试参与者将审查课程。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的评论标准来评估值得支持的。