Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Basic Principles of Weather Radar
Basic Principles of Weather Radar
WEATHER RADAR
RADAR
• Introduction to Radar
• Basic Operating Principles
• Reflectivity Products
• Doppler Principles
• Velocity Products
• Non-Meteorological Targets
• Summary
RADAR
(http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mkx/radar/part1/slide3.html)
DETERMINING TARGET LOCATION
• D = cT/2
• T pulse’s round trip time
- Azimuth from
-Range (km)
- true north
•A typical analogue
radar PPI display will
look like this, except
that the colour of the
echo is usually white.
• But in digital radars,
PPI, in addition to the
above, displays detailed
-R
an - Ra information about the
- Ra ge ng scan, colours as well.
ng m em
em ar ark
ark ke er
er r
PLAN POSITION INDICATOR (PPI)
• Due to the earth’s curvature effect, the height of the
scanning beam increases with the range.
• Even for a small elevation such as 0.2o, the height of the radar
beam will be at a height of about 3.0 km at 200 km range and
10.8 km at 400 km (after applying corrections for earth’s
curvature) whereas it is hardly 0.3 km at 50 km and 0.9 km at
100 km
-0.9 km
-0.3 km
-3.0 km
-10.8 km
-50 km
-100 km
-200 km
-400 km
EARTH’S CURVATURE EFFECT
oHigher the
intensity (dBZ),
higher rate at which
it is precipitating.
o dBZ > 20
ordinarily
precipitates
provided such an
echo is from
-AZ : Azimuth weather clouds.
-EL : Elevation : 0.2 deg
PPI(Z).. 0.2o elevation
-Scan Range : 250 km
-Scan resolution :0.5 km
-Display Range : 250 km
-Display resolution :1.25 km
• Radial velocity
over land are due to
hydrometeors
within the clouds
• Over the east and
southern parts of
Bay of Bengal,
radial velocity of 1
to 5 mps (as high as
9-11 mps are also
seen in the east) are
-Cool colours (blue and green)
due to sea clutters.
indicate that the hydrometeors
are moving towards the radar
PPI(V).. 1.0O ELEVATION
• Weather echoes over
the land (west to
south) appear to move
away from the radar.
•However, over Bay
of Bengal, the radial
velocity of 1 to 5 mps
are due to the sea
clutters.
Radial velocity
due to medium /
high clouds ( < 10
dBZ) in the
northeast around
150 km range.
Radial velocity
over land are due to
weather echoes
while the sea
clutters in Bay of
Bengal has just
ceased.
SPECTRUM WIDTH
-
-THE SIGNAL WHICH IS BACK-SCATTERED BY AN ASSEMBLAGE
OF MOVING TARGETS CONTAINS INFORMATION ABOUT THEIR
RADAR CROSS-SECTION AND RADIAL VELOCITIES.
-- ve radial velocity
indicating hydro-meteors
moving towards
ground(radar)
RHI(W)
- North-Height
–
- South
-Maximum value
-of each pixel on
-top projection
- East –
- West
-Maximum value
-of each pixel on
-top projection
DISPLAY OF MAXIMUM (Z)
- North – -Height
-South
-East –
-West
SURFACE RAINFALL INTENSITY
• IT IS AN IMAGE OF THE
RAINFALL INTENSITY IN A
USER SELECTABLE
SURFACE LAYER. IT IS
CALCULATED BASED ON
MARSHALL-PALMER
EQUATION Z=ARb WERE R
IS THE RAINFALL
INTENSITY AND A AND B
ARE CONSTANT. THE
VALUE OF A & B VARIES
FROM SEASON TO SEASON
AND PLACE TO PLACE
PRECIPITATION ACCUMULATION
• THE PAC PRODUCT IS A
SECOND LEVEL PRODUCT. IT
TAKES SRI PRODUCTS OF THE
SAME TYPE AS INPUT. THE
DISPLAY SHOWS THE COLOUR
CODED RAINFALL AMOUNT IN
(MM) FOR THE DEFINED TIME
PERIOD. PRECIPITATION
ACCUMULATION ESTIMATION
BY THE RADAR CAN BE
USEFUL TO WORK OUT WATER
INFLOW IN CATCHMENTS,
FLOOD FORECASTING IN
ALMOST REAL TIME BASIS IN
THE ABSENCE OF
CONVENTIONAL RAIN GAUGE
NETWORK.
POINT RAINFALL TOTAL
– Conventional Radar
– Doppler Radar
TYPES OF RADAR
Wavelength
Frequency (MHz) Wavelength Main purpose / application area
band
Wind profilers, clear air returns, turbulence
and refractive index structure
30-300 VHF 10-1 m
Z = ΣD 6
diameter
RADAR TO RAINFALL
Z D aR 6 B
R = rainfall rate
a and B are empirical constants
Complicated relationship between Z and R
Adjust Z to R conversions using rain gauge
readings
RAINDROP SIZES
B
A
Z AR b
Z 31R 1.71
For Orographic RA/DZ
Z 200R1.60 For Stratiform Rain
Z 486R 1.37
For T’Showers
• Generally, value of ‘A’ increases and value of ‘b’ decreases
with increasing convective intensity.
IMD RADAR NETWORK
CDR
• A network of 10 S-Band Cyclone Detection
Radars (CDR) covering the Indian Coast line.
• 06 on East Coast and 04 on West Coast.
• Recently replaced existing old generation radars
with 04 state-of-art S-Band DWRs at Chennai,
Kolkata, Machilipatnam & Visakhapatnam .
• Installed one indigenous Doppler Weather Radar
at Sriharikota (AP) .
CDR
IMD RADAR NETWORK
SDR
• A network of 12 X - Band Storm Detection
Radars (SDR).
-LOCATION
BARNALA(PUNJAB)
MOTHALA (NEAR BHUJ)
WEATHER INSTRUMENTS
-ONBOARD MET
SENSORS
-Anemomet
er
-Barometer
-Sonic
Anemometer
MST RADAR
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Technique
MST RADAR
• MST radar is a highly sensitive high resolution radar
operating typically around 50 MHz