CHATTANOOGA ENGINEERS CLUB
http://www.utc.edu/~engrcs/cec/cec.htm
Volume LI			August 14, 2000		12:00 noon
						The Cellar at Union Square

THIS WEEK__________________________________________________________________
Dr. Jesse Register, Superintendent, Hamilton County School, will speak to us
on the grants that has been submitted, and awarded.  He will also talk about
funding and budget of the schools, business partnership programs, merger and
changes, and the introduction of the school for a new society concept.



LAST WEEK___________________________________________________________________
Thom Benson, a WRCB-Channel 3 meteorologist, hosted a tour of the Channel 3
weather center.  The tour began with a short video of what "old" Doppler
looked like and how a radar echo was positioned with a grease pen and a
thread.  This method was quite time consuming since only a range of altitude
could be scanned at any moment.  This allowed time for an echo to change
considerably before it could be properly reported not to mention other
weather happing at different altitudes and quadrants.  The newer "smart"
Doppler radar is capable of scanning its entire area in five minutes without
operator assistance.  This information is processed and presented as a
myriad of meteorological products.  Due to the curvature of the earth,
information from more than one source may be necessary to fully document a
weather event.  As well as Doppler radar information, real-time lightning
stroke information can also be used to help track the propagation of a storm
front.  Mr. Benson explained how weather balloons are used in forecasting
today. Before the use of balloons, weather telemetry equipment was hoisted
into the atmosphere at the end of a steel cable lifted by several kites.
The cable method cannot be used during severe weather because of the threat
of lightning.  Weather balloons can be launched in any weather, but don't
always get returned when they fall back to earth.  At one hundred dollars
apiece twice daily, this can be rather costly.  Mr. Benson eluded that in
the near future gliders fitted with weather telemetry equipment will be
lifted by balloon and then glide back to earth to a particular location by
using an on board GPS, Global Positioning System, navigation system.
Although this system is costly, approximately fifteen thousand dollars a
set, it will return to be reused.

The Engineers Club would like to thank Mr. Thom Benson for a very
interesting tour. We now know more about what goes on behind the scenes in
weather forecasting.

Above summary provided by Brad Baucom.

COMING PROGRAM________________________________________________________
August 21 - Dr. Stephanie Smullen, UTC School of Engineering and Computer
Science, "New certificate programs,  Computer Networking and Internet
Application Programming".




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