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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. For a more complete description of radar operations and their use in severe weather detection and forecasting, take METR 475 and/or read the online laboratory exercises.

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 echo besides precipitation.
  4. To be able to use radar images and mosaics in short-range forecasting.

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  1. Principles of Radar
  2. All that Glitters ...
  3. Ground Clutter
  4. Anamolous Propagation
  5. Other Transmitters
  6. Birds and Insects
  7. Clear Air
  8. Echo Type Quiz
  9. Radar Mosaics
  10. Radar and Weather Forecasting
  11. Summary

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Metr151 Home Page
Texas A&M Atmospheric Sciences Dept. Home Page

Questions or Comments

Technical: E-mail John Fulton < jdfult@nimbus.met.tamu.edu >
Scientific: E-mail Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon. < nielsen@ariel.met.tamu.edu >

Copyright © 1996-2003 Texas A&M University, Texas A&M Atmospheric Sciences Department and Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon. All rights reserved.