Weather Radar; Used To Locate Precipitation, Calculate Its Motion, and Estimate Its Type

 

Weather Radar

Weather radar, also known as Doppler weather radar and weather surveillance radar, is used to understand the climatic condition and is widely used in climatological and meteorological applications. Weather radar helps monitor large weather systems such as systems used to monitor storms. Thus, there is a growing demand for weather radar in the aviation industry, as they control aviation safety and plan to opt out of weather-affected activities. Basically, radar is an instrument that uses radio waves to detect the movement of moving bodies of water or other items of interest, such as ships and airplanes.

Today, there are more weather radars than earlier models. Earlier radars used the same basic principle of detecting stationary precipitation and the process was simple: the radar was pointed in the right direction, and radio waves were transmitted, reflected, and received by the surface layers of the air. Because of its unique nature, radar has enabled scientists to study many aspects of the weather in much greater detail than was possible before, such as the development of computerized weather forecasts and lightning detection.

Earlier, the radar devices were very large and heavy, and so required a trained operator who could control them. Today, weather radar is increasingly smaller and more lightweight, which makes them easier to operate. Radars also depend on a number of different technologies, some of which are still very sensitive, such as Doppler technology, which is used in weather radar to determine the speed of precipitation and wind. Some weather radars are run by the U.S. Defense Mapping Agency and the National Weather Service.

A number of private meteorological services operate their own weather radar units. They often use the same technology that government and national weather service use, but they usually specialize in particular areas or topics. For example, there are only a handful of meteorologists who actually have weather radar available to them on a regular basis. Generally, private meteorological services operate on local, county, and state levels. Weather radar is updated on a regular basis so that it can provide organizations with up-to-date weather reports.

Weather radar are widely used to provide accurate weather reports to the public and to guide natural resource management practices. They also conduct research into the causes and prevention of severe weather, preparing for severe weather events as well as tracking weather patterns and pollution. Several government agencies around the world use weather radars, such as the Air Force, Army, Navy, NASA, ISRO, etc.

Modern weather radar are mostly pulse-Doppler radar that can detect the motion of rain drops in addition to the intensity of rainfall. The increasing adoption of new radar is improving the weather prediction. The changes in the climatic conditions increase the risk of extreme weather condition such as heat-waves, flooding, and droughts. Thus, weather radars are widely used for flood warnings, hydrological applications, and weather forecasting, as they provide qualitative and quantitative data about the atmosphere. The data collected by weather radar is then processed to identify changes in the climate and environment.

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