Is WSR-88D (NEXRAD) Radar "Old" DoD Technology?
Absolutely Not!

The WSR-88D (which stands for Weather Surveillance Radar-1988-Doppler) is NOT old military technology.

Of the 154 implementations of NEXRAD Radar up to 11/14/1998, there are 22 DoD sites listed as recipients. The first actual delivery of a WSR-88D radar was to OKLAHOMA CITY, OK/Norman on 05/24/90. The very FIRST delivery to a DoD site was to OKLAHOMA CITY, OK/Altus AFB on 09/06/91.

So, if NEXRAD is 20 to 30 year old "hand-me-down" technology from the DoD as Richard Hoagland stated on Art Bell's show (click HERE for audio archive and scroll over to 2:09), how is it that delivery of the radar to a military installation did not occur until 09/06/91??  

According to the authors of an article at http://www.ametsoc.org/ams/supplement/waf/13.2/Gauth/gauth.htm , the first WSR-88D was installed in Twin Lakes, OK [OK/Norman], in 1966. Today, (01/13/1999) I spoke to Dr. Sidney Gauthreaux at Clemson University, one of the authors of the article. Dr. Gauthreaux has informed me that this is a great error on the part of the editors at the American Meteorological Society, and that he will contact them to FIX it. He read me the REAL introduction to his article which discussed "older" radar data which was NOT related to NEXRAD.

I also spoke to a technician at the WSI Corporation http://www.wsicorp.com/wsicorp/toc.htm (developers of NEXRAD WSR-88D) who stated that the FIRST delivery of a WSR-88D radar was to OKLAHOMA CITY, OK/Norman on 05/24/1990! It is called the WSR-88D because it stands for Weather Surveillance Radar-1988-Doppler – the 1988 stands for its development date.  

You can see the current WSR-88D Implementation Status at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/pub/modernize/88d.txt Included are the "delivered" dates, "accepted" dates (when the owning agency accepted the equipment from the vendor), and the "commissioned" dates (when the owning agency uses the equipment in an official capacity).
Also available are details such as latitudes/longitudes and site elevation (elevation at the base
of the tower).

And for those who think "all the bugs are worked out" of NEXRAD radar,
See: Research and Development Activity Related to WSR-88D Algorithms
and,
http://trmm.gsfc.nasa.gov/trmm_office/information/gvops/A.doc.html
(search for "Anomalous Propagation" throughout the above document)

Also see: NEXRAD Radar – A "Direct Hit?" for a list of significant references.

Michael Theroux
Borderland Sciences

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