ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES AT THE ILLINOIS STATE WATER SURVEY - 5 DECADES OF DIVERSE ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS

During a 50-yr history of diverse scientific endeavors, the Illinois S tate Water Survey's weather group has constantly shifted to meet new c hallenges as the nation's only sizable atmospheric research and servic es group housed in a state agency. The hundreds of projects encompass basic and applied research; data collection, evaluation, and storage; field projects; instrument design, development, and testing; and a ser vices program in response to the needs of the public and specialized u sers of weather and climate information. Areas of major achievements i nclude development of numerous meteorological instruments and data sys tems including the CHILL radar; participation in several national fiel d projects, including the Metropolitan Meteorological Experiment (METR OMEX); and pioneering research in radar meteorology, weather impacts, planned weather modification, inadvertent urban weather and climate ch ange, applied climatology, and hydrometeorology.