User blog:BJFRacing14/ABN Domestic Television Corporation to launch Ultra HD MDR vehicles

During a press conference in Seattle, ABN Domestic Television Corporation CEO Billy Fortner announced a new wave of Ultra High Definition mobile doppler radar trucks to be dispatched into high-impact severe weather communities. With the launching of the newer vehicles, ABN DTC's goal for the major severe weather markets is to attempt measuring at ground level with what they call "skits", mobile radar pods on wheels controlled remotely from inside the vehicle. The technology is derrived from bomb removal technology many police departments use to send in a robot and remove potentially dangerous explosives without sending an actual human inside. Mounted with a 4K camera on the pod, the "skit" is also equipped with sensors to detect pressure, surface wind speed, surface temperature, etc. KXOX, ABN's affiliate in Oklahoma City, was the first to adopt the "Storm Tracker" skits in their mobile doppler radar vehicles. These pods were discreetly launched into areas where the tornadoes carved a swath of destruction in 2013 in Moore and El Reno, Oklahoma. No other television station in the market used a skit pod to measure the speeds and pressure at the surface. It is the third phase in a long development of mobile doppler devices. KXOK was the first to launch a mobile doppler radar unit in 1981. In 1983, KXOK was given the second Devonshire Electronics doppler radar system. The switch to HD radar began in 1993, and in 1995, KXOK was the first station to launch HD radar. In 2012, KXOK made another upgrade to their "Storm Tracker" radar system by purchasing an Ultra HD unit from Devonshire Electronics. The system was a key player in the Moore and El Reno tornadoes one year later.

The radars, dubbed "Advantage Storm Seeker" for ABN and UBC affiliates ("Ventaja Tormenta Rastreador" for MundoVision stations), will be equipped with an X-Band, dual polarization doppler dish, which will be used to differentiate between different types of precipitiation, and even non-meteorological matter such as biological matter, tornado debris, and smoke. Says Fortner, "The disadvantage with normal TV station radar and National Weather Service NEXRAD radar is that a normal radar unit sends out one beam to detect various forms of precipitation and wind velocities. The problem with this is that our Earth curves and one beam isn't enough to detect debris, or other life-threatening matter. While having NEXRAD radar is good, it can't detect some of the things that the Advantage Storm Seeker radars will be able to. Plus, NEXRAD data takes as much as 5-6 minutes to get critical, life saving information back to the station and to the public. With our new radars, we can send out a beam and get the data back instantaneously in about 30 seconds to a minute, which is crucial during severe weather when seconds count."

The first Advantage Storm Seeker vehicle was unveiled on Monday at ABN station KUBE in Dallas-Fort Worth. "Our goal is to have these Advantage Storm Seeker vehicles up and rolling on the road at our affiliates in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and San Diego. Furthermore, we expect to have these trucks roaming the roads in cities like Houston, Phoenix, Miami, Denver, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, Birmingham, Tupelo, Nashville and Kansas City, which are big severe weather markets." While data is being received from the truck and from the skit pod, ABN viewers in severe weather markets can view this data in real-time with the station's mobile weather app. "Weather in these severe weather markets is #1 priority to us. Getting critical information to viewers fast and accurately is of the utmost priority when seconds count. We all learned that the hard way on April 27, 2011 and May 24 and 30, 2013. We cannot forget every soul of every ethnic group, every economic and social background."

Fortner goes on to speak of the advanced warning the Advantage Storm Seeker mobile radars are capable of producting. "With this system, we will be able to further save people from harm. To do this, we must be able to give them advanced warning. This system allows for such advanced warning. When a station can spot a critical emergence of a tornado, this system will allow them to break programming coverage instantly and give their viewers the fast and accurate information they need to prepare for an oncoming tornado emergency in these cities where many lives have been lost before. That's a major critical problem with getting a Tornado Warning out to the viewers with NOAA Weather Radio. The time it takes for the National Weather Service to spot the tornado, then compile the warning message into the console is as much as 5-8 minutes. These people don't have 5-8 minutes. They want to know immediately what the tornado is doing, where it is going and who is affected. We're very much expecting that this system will help reduce the number of injuries and deaths as well as the amount of confusion many other ethnic groups in the United States are having a hard time with. I'm very thankful to be a small part of this effort, but we must understand that this is a team effort. We are very confident about this newer system knowing that this will be a life saving system if only we work together with the National Weather Service and the Storm Prediction Center using their colculations, not some DeathCon system The Weather Channel uses. We want to put out information that makes sense to people. April 2011 and May 2013 were two of the most major events where unfortunately, this last iteration of the system we've used before did not save 252 people from death in Alabama and it didn't save the children from the school in El Reno, Oklahoma. We're putting a stop to this confusion situation with this Advantage Storm Seeker system."

The goal is to have these Advantage Storm Seeker radar rigs ready for the fall wave of severe weather in the Midwest and Southeastern United States. By Winter of 2017, many markets in the Northeast will get Advantage Storm Seeker rigs to cover snow events like ice storms and blizzards.