Radar Imagery

Introduction

During the past several years, the National Weather Service has replaced all its radars with good-quality Doppler radars. This has greatly enhanced the National Weather Service's warning capability, and has helped transform the local forecast office into a weather warning and very-short-range forecast office. None of this really helps much at the one to two-day forecast range, though. For daily weather forecasting, it's still the basic reflectivity patterns which are most valuable. This module discusses the basic principles of operation of weather radars, describes how to interpret radar mosaics, and discusses the use of radar in weather forecasting.

Learning Objectives

1. To understand the basics of how a radar works.
2. To learn the relationship between range and elevation.
3. To become familiar with the different types of echoes besides precipitation
4. To be able to use radar images and mosaics in short range forecasting

Table of Contents

1. Principles of Radar
2. All That Glitters...
3. Ground Clutter
4. Anomalous Propagation (AP)
5. Other Transmitters
6. Birds and Insects
7. Clear Air
8. Echo Type Quiz
9. Radar Mosaics
10. Radar and Weather Forecasting
11. Dual Polarization
12. Summary

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