Just months after Alabama partnered with weather technology company Climavision to bring gap-filling weather radar to its emergency management operations, the company on Wednesday announced an academic partnership with the University of South Alabama.
Climavision will make its proprietary radar data available to USA for instruction and research in atmospheric science. The company also will collaborate with the university on experiential learning and professional development activities, including radar site visits, guest lectures and student research projects.
“Partnerships with industry leaders like Climavision provide our students with access to the same cutting-edge observational tools used by operational meteorologists every day,” Dr. Jake Wiley, assistant professor of meteorology at USA, said. “By incorporating Climavision’s radar data into our forecasting, research, and classroom activities, students will gain valuable hands-on experience analyzing high-impact weather events and making real-time decisions. This collaboration also creates exciting opportunities to advance research on coastal and severe weather while strengthening our mission of preparing the next generation of meteorologists to serve their communities.”
“The Climavision radars fill long-standing gaps in the weather radar coverage in the state,” Dr. Sytske Kimball, chair of the Department of Earth Sciences and director of the South Alabama Mesonet, said. “Our students and researchers will now be able to study storms as they evolve in the critical lowest parts of the atmosphere and, along with the Mesonet weather stations, get a complete picture of storm structure.”
Founded in 2021, Climavision said it is deploying a series of high-resolution X-band weather radars across the country to fill gaps between the federal government’s NEXRAD weather radars. The company said as many as 130 million people live in areas where the National Weather Service has limited visibility on low-altitude weather phenomena that can quickly threaten lives and property.
Of the nearly 30 radars Climavision has deployed, three cover significant NEXRAD gaps in Alabama, including one in southwest Alabama north of USA’s Mobile campus.
The partnership with USA follows the announcement that the Alabama Emergency Management Agency has contracted with Climavision for data from those radars, giving state and county emergency managers the ability to detect threatening weather in areas where they previously had limited visibility.
Official watches and warnings will continue to come from the National Weather Service, but better visibility will allow emergency managers to respond more quickly and effectively to tornadoes, hail and other threatening weather, Climavision said.
“When we started Climavision, our vision was bigger than building a radar network, it was about changing how critical weather infrastructure could be delivered and used to protect communities,” Climavision CEO Chris Goode said. “This partnership with the University of South Alabama represents exactly why that matters. By putting next-generation observations directly into the hands of students and researchers, we’re not only improving our understanding of severe weather today, we’re helping prepare the scientists and meteorologists who will define the future of weather forecasting.”
Students and faculty will begin using the radar data when the fall 2026 semester begins.
