Published August 23, 2018
WASHINGTON - Congressman Ralph Abraham, M.D., R-Alto, announced Tuesday that the University
of Louisiana at Monroe is receiving a nearly $275,000 federal grant to buy new weather
satellite equipment.
The National Science Foundation awarded the Major Research Instrumentation award to
ULM so that the university can buy a compact, portable Doppler Wind Lidar system.
This equipment uses lasers to study atmospheric characteristics such as wind, turbulence
and aerosols. It will allow ULM to better research storms and air quality to improve
public safety and human health.
“Severe weather can develop seemingly without warning. ULM is studying ways we can
detect these storms faster and more accurately, and I am pleased that these federal
funds will be used to help ULM with its mission of making Louisiana a safer place,” said
Dr. Abraham, a member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
Dr. Abraham has been a strong supporter of ULM’s atmospheric science program. In 2016,
he worked with the university and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to help
the university get an operational license for its Doppler weather radar.
ULM President Nick J. Bruno said the new instruments will further the university’s
study of dangerous weather.
“We are very happy for the successful National Science Foundation grant of nearly
$275,000. As the only university in Louisiana with an atmospheric science program,
the grant will allow our faculty and students to continue research efforts into danger
weather, which could lead to answers in making our citizens safer,” Bruno said. “I
want to thank Congressman Abraham for his support of this grant.”
ULM investigators on the grant include principal investigator Dr. Todd Murphy, Dr.
Kenneth Leppert, Dr. Joydeep Bhattacharjee, and Dr. Michael Chenoweth.
“We are essentially building out a mobile atmospheric profiling laboratory. The NSF
grant will allow us to take our instrumentation to where the active weather is actually
happening, instead of just remaining static and hoping the weather moves over you,” Murphy
said. “There are only a handful of such mobile profiling labs across the United States,
however, there is a great need in our field to build more of these labs to support
new and improved knowledge of atmospheric processes.”
With the new grant, the ULM research team will acquire a Halo Photonics Stream Line
XR, which is a pulsed Doppler Wind Lidar with an eye-safe laser, high pulse rate,
low use energy, and coherent heterodyne detection, according to the grant abstract
provided by the NSF. The research team will use the Lidar along with existing instruments
such as a microwave radiometer, rawinsonde system, and surface instrumentation so
that it can be used both in mobile field study settings or at a fixed location on
campus.
The research team will study convective initiation and onset of severe weather, lake
and sea breeze circulations and coastal processes, precipitation and cloud physics,
and aerosol science and air pollution.
The University of Louisiana Monroe's Doppler weather system will be joined by a new,
portable Doppler Wind Lidar. The Lidar is funded by a National Science Foundation
grant of almost $275,000. Congressman Ralph Abraham, a member of the House Committee
on Science, Space and Technology, supported the NSF grant. Emerald McIntyre/ULM Photo
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