Volpe Center Expert Honored for Contribution to Radar Technology and Meteorology

On August 1, 2006, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society and the 27th Canadian Remote Sensing Symposium honored Dr. Thomas A. Seliga, an electronics engineer in the Volpe Center's Advanced Communication, Navigation,

and Surveillance Technologies Division, for his pioneering research in weather radar technology. His contributions to the field of radar meteorology have led to improvements in radar's power to quantify rainfall rates, detect hail, and discriminate between water and ice phase hydrometeors; his work has also helped to advance the understanding of cloud physics.

A special session of the symposium, "Thirty Years of Dual-Polarization Radar in Precipitation and Cloud Measurements: Impact of Thomas Seliga's Pioneering Research," honored his contributions. The papers given in this session traced the history of dual polarization radar and its use in precipitation and cloud measurements. Each paper was a testimony to the impact Dr. Seliga had both in the groundbreaking research in the field and the application of his breakthrough concepts on radar meteorology and many areas of the hydrometeorological sciences. Dr. Seliga closed the session with his paper "Polarization-Based Multiparameter Weather Radar: Realization of a Concept and Insights into Future Applications."

Volpe Center RISC Team receives ATCA Award

The Volpe Runway Incursion Severity Classification (RISC) team will receive the prestigious Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA) Earl F. Ward Memorial Award for 2006. A runway incursion is any occurrence at an airport involving an aircraft, vehicle, person, or object on the ground that creates a collision hazard or results in a loss of separation with an aircraft taking off, intending to take off, landing, or intending to land. Reducing runway incursions lessens the probability of accidents that potentially involve fatalities, injuries, and significant property damage. The RISC system, designed for the FAA's Office of Runway Safety, produces and records a consistent assessment of runway incursion events. This is a critical component of measuring risk, where risk is a function of the severity of the outcome and the probability of recurrence. This model is currently being validated by the FAA and other countries and is under consideration at the International Civil Aviation Organization as a tool for standardized ratings of runway incursions. The team will be honored at the 51st Annual ATCA Conference on October 31, 2006 in Washington, D.C.