[NLRS] RS this is not, but it is different!

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

My weather radar display program at weather.net uses a combination of 
ground observations for rain, radar indications of cloud tops, and 
satellite observations of clouds to enable or mask such odd phenomena. 
My program would not have shown that echo because there was no rain in 
the radar range and no clouds visible to the satellite.

Other increasingly effective radar echo generators are wind turbine 
fields and cell towers. My weather client fusses about none precip 
echoes and I keep telling him they are valid echoes but of mostly dry 
objects, though there are pictures of clouds in the wakes of wind 
turbines under exactly the right conditions. On my trip I noticed some 
NWS precip maps with masks over known wind farms. Their precip map is 
based on echo intensity. Its messed up by anomalous echoes, wind farms, 
hail, snow, and towers including country elevators. Hail gives very 
strong echoes and snow gives weaker echoes than rain. The data we get 
from NWS is a sample of a 1 degree by 1 km patch where their basic radar 
sampling is 1/2 degree by 1/2 km so the odds are 1 in 4 of seeing a 
tower and that makes it difficult to filter that dot echo. As more 
towers go up that filtering will be more difficult and needed more.

73, Jerry, K0CQ

On 10/25/2013 11:23 AM, Bill Davis wrote:
>
>
> http://www.nbcnews.com/science/what-mysterious-blob-radar-answer-traced-military-8C11466181
>
> 73  Bill  K0AWU
> ______________________________________________________________
> NLRS mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/nlrs
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:NLRS at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
>