The Secretary of Commerce has awarded a Gold Medal to the NSSL/CIMMS Radar Research and Development Division for “scientific and engineering excellence in adapting military phased array radar technology to improve U.S. weather radar capabilities.”

NSSL has led the unique federal, private, state and academic partnership to develop and evaluate phased array radar technology since 2003.

Phased array radar has strong potential to provide revolutionary improvements in NOAA National Weather Service tornado, severe storm and flash flood warning lead times and accuracy, reducing false alarms.

“This Gold Medal Award from DOC signifies a huge accomplishment for the NSSL/CIMMS RRDD group led by Doug Forsyth.  They are very worthy of this high level of recognition of their accomplishments,” said NSSL Director Steve Koch.

This is NSSL’s fourth Gold Medal Award and is the highest honorary award granted by the Secretary of Commerce.  A Gold Medal is defined as distinguished performance characterized by extraordinary, notable, or prestigious contributions that impact the mission of the Department and/or one or more operating units, which reflects favorably on the Department.