CASA, the Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere, seeks to revolutionize the way we detect, monitor and predict atmospheric phenomena by creating a distributed collaborative adaptive sensor network that sample the atmosphere where and when end user needs are greatest. This system has the potential of having a profound impact on the society in terms of lives, property and the economy.

Our goal is to dramatically increase the warning time and forecast accuracy for tornadoes, hurricanes, flash floods, and other hazards that impact millions of people across the US every single day. CASA will engineer an entirely new approach based on a dense network of low-power radars that overcome curvature blockage and achieve significantly enhanced resolution compared to today’s systems. The system will have a new generation of meteorological software that allows the radars to focus their beams down onto individual storms and actually track those events. The CASA concept is referred to as distributed collaborative adaptive sensing technology, or DCAS.

CASA meets the NSF Broader Impacts Review Criteria through: comprehensive education and outreach programs that introduce systems-based engineering to K-12 students via the mandated engineering/technology curriculum in Massachusetts, and serves as the mechanism for expanding participation by under-represented groups in engineering and scientific endeavors at all levels. Further, it will engage first-responders and other end users through the provision of both technology and training. CASA will address the observation, prediction and response of weather, an issue that affects between 10 percent and 30 percent of the U.S. gross national product.

UPRM works in collaboration with UMass at Amherst, Colorado State University and University of Oklahoma in this new Engineering Research Center. Prof. Sandra Cruz-Pol is the PI for the center at UPRM and the educator and remote sensing coordinator, Prof. José Colom-Ustáriz is the radar systems coordinator, Prof. Rafael Rodríguez is the antenna design coordinator, Prof. Walter Díaz is the social science coordinator, Profs. Eric Harmsen and Nazario Ramírez work with hydrology and rainfall statistic components, and Prof. Héctor Monroy is the administrative director.