Collaborators

North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG).  NCTCOG is a principal partner, through their office of Emergency Preparedness which serves the emergency management (EM) community.  CASA has signed a Master Agreement with the NCTCOG to facilitate the installation and operation of the radar network, to conduct joint local and national fundraising, and to engage a variety of stakeholders from surface transportation, aviation, utilities, corporate headquarters, and arena events.  NCTCOG has formed a CASA WX Executive Council composed of local EMs and elected officials to guide the creation, operation and on-going sustainability of the Urban Demonstration Network.

National Weather Service.  The National Weather Service's Office of Science and Technology (NWS-OST) is another principal partner in the project.  NWS-OST is interested in funding research in convective initiation and warnings, urban flash flood warning, and a project to integrate CASA weather into forecaster operations at the NWS Fort Worth Forecast Office and West Gulf River Forecast Center.  CASA collaborates closely with personnel at the Fort Worth Forecast Office and the West Gulf River Forecast Center. In addition, NWS Southern Region Headquarters, located in Fort Worth, hosts the computational infrastructure for the  radar network. CASA receives annual support from the National Mesonet Program and CASA radar data has been integrated into AWIPS-2, the operational system used by forecasters in the NWS Fort Worth Forecast Office, with the help of Raytheon company.    

 CASA team and National Weather Service Office of Science & Technology team particpate in strategy and planning workshop in June 2014.

DFW Emergency Managers and Public Safety Officials. CASA has established strong connections to the large, vibrant regional public safety community in North Central Texas. Over 750 public safety officials - including emergency managers, police, fire and storm water managers - have access to tailored products delivered over a website and a mobile app.  CASA data is also available to the Salvation Army to help them in their response activities.  

Local Academic Organizations. In addition to the CASA universities, the DFW Urban Demonstration network involves academic institutions within the Metroplex and beyond. University of Texas Arlington's Civil and Environmental Engineering program, and University of North Texas Natural Hazards and Emergency Management program and Murphy Center for Entrepreneurship have been involved as collaborators for research, and are hosting radars on their campuses. 

DFW International Airport. CASA data is available to the airport to help with public safety, environmental affairs and operations. High resolution information on thunderstorms helps airport duty managers communicate risk to local stakeholders. High precision, granular rainfall information helps managment of storm water runoff. Geographically precise weather information helps noise managers communicate impacts of weather-related detours to surrounding communities.   

EWR Weather Radar. EWR Weather Radar is one of CASA's long term industrial partners that has a great history with the center in terms of testbed participation, student engagement and technology transfer. EWR has provided an advanced X-band weather radar in support of this demonstration and it has been installed in Dallas-Fort Worth. 

Understory. This innovative start-up has deployed a network of 150 ground sensors across North Central Texas to make in-situ observations of hail, wind and rain. Information from these sensors is used for cross-validation of CASA products and sending alerts to local residents.  

Other Stakeholders: CASA and the NCTCOG are in the process of attracting additional stakeholders who have an interest in the low level data.  Discussions are underway with data providers for mobile apps, logistics coordinators, hospitals and utility companies. As part of a pilot program, NBC DFW 5 TV station began airing CASA data on air in May 2018, thereby increasing CASA's outreach to millions of viewers in the DFW area.