Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) Societal Benefit Study

Mahapatra, Sohini; Spitaels, Juliette; Bhatt, Sandip

doi:10.25923/6cz9-0h83

i

Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) Societal Benefit Study

2025
By Mahapatra, Sohini ; Spitaels, Juliette ; Bhatt, Sandip
Series: Mitre technical report MTR250370

Details

Personal Author:

Mahapatra, Sohini ; Spitaels, Juliette ; Bhatt, Sandip
Corporate Authors:

Mitre Corporation. ; United States. National Weather Service. Office of Observations.
NOAA Program & Office:

NWS (National Weather Service) ; OBS (Office of Observations)
Description:

The National Weather Service (NWS) Office of Observations asked The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) to describe and monetize the societal benefits of Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD). NEXRAD radars are approaching end of life, and determining the societal benefits generated by these radars can help inform the value proposition of the replacement program, Radar Next. For this report, MITRE was asked to estimate the societal benefits of NEXRAD in a single year against a baseline where there is no data from NEXRAD radars. We monetized six sources of benefit: (1) reduced injuries and fatalities from tornadoes; (2) reduced injuries and fatalities from flash floods; (3) reduced injuries and fatalities from severe winds; (4) reduced commercial aviation delays from thunderstorms; (5) reduced injuries and fatalities from avoided general aviation accidents; and (6) reduced damage to aircraft from avoided general aviation accidents. We estimate that NEXRAD provides an annual benefit of $8.9 billion across these sources of benefit, with a low estimate of $5.2 billion and a high estimate of $11.2 billion.
Keywords:

Economic Aspects Radar Meteorology Social Aspects Economic Aspects Radar Meteorology Social Aspects
Series:

Mitre technical report MTR250370
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25923/6cz9-0h83
Format:

pdf
Document Type:

Technical Report
Funding:

Contract no. 1331L523D13OS0003
Place as Subject:

United States
License:

https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Rights Information:

CC0 Public Domain
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:78fd28584643d5904357f5330c31ecd824b879782084e9e7c1f1cbb211fc9e635a7e388bb2f580c8a1a732a46fca1825b478564898b136391c929efccdaca90f
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/71986/noaa_71986_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 2.03 MB ]

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