ENHANCED METEOROLOGICAL

RADAR
47 - NAVIN
48 - PRATIK
49 - SNEHAL
50 - MAHESH
51 - AMOL

CONTENTS
Basic RADAR

Types of radar







Types of weather

Meteorological Radar

Short & long range radar

Advantages

Disadvantages

Applications

References





What is RADAR ??????????????

Radar components :

Transmitter
Transmitter & Receiver switch
Antenna
TYPES OF RADAR.





METEREOLOGICAL
Radar
Weather radar or doppler weather radar

It is a type of radar which is used to locate
precipitation, calculate its motion, & estimate
its type (rain, snow , hail etc..)

1
ST
weather radar invented during 2
nd

world war by

DAVID ATLAS
worked for US Air force then MIT
Radar images




Radar Range Equation for Weather Radar

P
e
= received power
P
s
= transmitted power
G = antenna gain
= radar cross section
= transmitters wave length
R = range
TYPES OF WEATHER
Wind, Speed (which can be effectively gathered
using Doppler principles) and Wind Direction

Rain (light / heavy / storm)

Hail, Snow & Ice

Fog (this is seldom effectively detected and output from
ground based rotating weather radar systems)

Temperature (never directly available from ground based
rotating weather radar systems. Would be useful for
identifying the dew point and possibility for ground mist and
fog).

Cloud and heavy cloud (such as cumulonimbus)


RAIN
Microwave
Transmitter
Receiver
Case A

the returns will be relatively
shallow . This shows some light
(non- precipitating cloud) from
which the density of the returns
will be
relatively shallow.
Case B

This case depicts a cloud formation
with some precipitation (perhaps
light rain or drizzle for example).
Considerably more echoes can be
expected from precipitating weather
than from non-precipitating weather.
Case C This case shows heavy cloud with
large quantities of rain held in it.
This might be for example a heavy
thunderstorm. The density of this
formation will be very high and
hence the returns will be quite
intense (as shown).
New Doppler radar can detect rain associated with tropical cyclones. It
typically covers within a 200 to 250 milesdistance from the radar
location.

The newest generation of doppler radar provides forecosters with
improved data on the movement of tropical cyclones , tornado activity
that can accompany a tropical cyclone,& estimates of wind speed within
a tropical cyclone.

Reconnaissance aircraft , the Hurricane Hunters.

Development of both radar and technologically advanced military
aircraft made it possible to gather data in a new way.
During World War II, Army Air Corps and Navy pilots began making
reconnaissance flights into the eye of hurricanes to obtain information
on a hurricanes location and intensity.
Today , reconnaissance aircraft are still actively used to gather tropical
cyclone information , which is then passed on to the

Weather Radar Clutter

Ambiguous returns urban echos ground clutter
a) unfiltered
b) filtered



There is a wide range of other reasons (some can be quite strange) why returns and
echoes can be received at the weather radar antenna. Some examples are presented
here:

Sea Clutter.
Under certain wind and other atmospheric conditions, sharp-tipped waves can reflect
microwave energy back to the radar; this phenomenon is known as sea clutter. Sea
clutter can be of modest to large reflectivity and extend to long ranges.
It can complicate 'near-surface' velocity analysis by returning a mix of both the wind
and wave motion. It is common that sea clutter is caused by atmospheric refraction
and the climatic conditions near the coast are particularly susceptible to this.

Ships.
Sea Clutter patterns can be disrupted by passing ships.
Radome Clutter.
The effects of a radome can increase the general clutter, noise &
interference received at the antenna.

Bird migration.
Strange but logical. The returns from flocks of migrating birds will show up at
weather radar systems (this phenomenon is often referred to as Angel Echo).
Bird reflections can be quite troublesome in radar meteorology. It only takes
one bird per volume to return a large, moving radar echo. During the migration
season, the effect can be quite serious. However, using Doppler techniques,
the radial velocity of migrating flocks of birds will normally fall into a specific
category.

Chaff.
Military system to disperse many small reflective particles into the atmosphere.
These disperse and slowly fall to the ground. They are high reflective and are
essentially used to 'jam' the radar display.

Aircraft.
For a weather radar, reflections from aircraft passing through the airspace will
be considered as clutter.



Figure 1: C-Band Weather Radar
This would normally be implemented as a ground based rotating primary weather radar
system and would commonly be located close to (or at) a major airport.
An example range of such a short range weather radar might be 80 Nm
(this is the standard used in one commercally available AMS Gematronik product).
The weather data it finds could be used both for approach support and for feeding
into the wider weather data concentration systems.

The antenna rotation rate between systems is onto variable (3 to 6 rpm on).
The antenna rotation rate between systems is quite variable (3 to 6 rpm is common).
Assuming multiple elevations are used, the weather picture gathered might be updated
with a frequency of one minute and upwards (this depends on the complexity and
number of the elevations required and the antenna rotation rate).

Short Range Weather Radar


Long Range Weather Radar

Figure 1: Long Range Weather Radar Meteor 1500 Antenna I
n Adelaide (Australia),
still shown without its protecting radome
Courtesy of Gematronik Weather Radar Systems

The same as for the short-range weather radar
systems, long range radars are
also ground based rotating primary weather radar
systems. Location of a long
range weather radar is less important and the
primary aim would be to develop
a siting plan such that the system is optimised to
limit redundancy with
maximised coverage between adjacent antennas to
provide coverage
continuously over a wide area.



Characteristic
PSR Weather Radar
Frequency L, S-band S,C & X-band (+L-band)
Doppler yes yes
Scanning azimuth or Elevation azimuth and Elevation
Processing Complex & real-time Very complex, not time-critical
Polarisation Linear and Circular Dual (vertical and horizontal)
Peak Power Various (kW - Mw) Various (kW - Mw)
Processing I (in-phase) & Q (quadrature) I & Q
Picture Update 6 - 12 seconds 5 - 15 minutes
Clutter Processing Yes (but weather is clutter) Yes (but aircraft are clutter)
Antenna Size Larger (longer wavelength) smaller (shorter wavelength)
SURVEILLANCE RADAR VS. WEATHER RADAR
Advantages

They are able to supply a higher quality of data than standard
radar

Used in Aircraft

Quick response for every change in weather

The main advantage of doppler radar over the conventional
weather radar is it can tell us how much rain we could get


Disadvantages

Applications

References