Weather Radar Technology Term Paper Research Essay

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Radar
Radar refers to a sensor that uses electromagnetic rays to detect, locate, and track objects at significant distances. Its operation is based on the transmission of electromagnetic energy towards the item, and observing echoes from the object. It can be used to determine the position of objects in space and can now be used in different fields, including weather operations, monitoring social nature disasters, and watching aircraft. This paper will discuss weather radar, which works by detecting the rainfall rate in the atmosphere and then using the reflected wavelength to predict future weather.
How a Weather Radar Works
Weather radar works by sending radar pulses, listening to the impulses that are returned by the signal, and determining the height, and calculating the intensity of return. A weather radar usually sends directional pulses of microwave radiation. One to ten-centimeter wavelengths is considered ten times the droplets’ diameter because the Rayleigh scattering takes place at such frequencies. That implies that some of each pulse's energy will bounce back these particles back to the radar station. Shorter wavelengths are considered the best for the smaller particles, but the signals are quickly discontinued (Thorndahl et al. 2017). Therefore, a 10cm radar is considered better but expensive than a 5cm radar. A 1cm radar is used to research tiny particles such as fog. The radar pulses usually spread out as they get away from the radar station. Therefore, as the radar pulse moves further away from the station, it traverses increases compared to when it is near the station. By the end of a 170km range, the air volume that has been scanned by one pulse can be more than several cubic kilometers. Such volume is referred to as the pulse volume. The volume of air that a pulse occupies simultaneously can be calculated using the formula v=hr2*beam width2. V refers to the volume occupied by the pulse, h is the pulse width, r is the distance that the pulse has traveled from the radar.
Listening to the signals that return
Between the pulses, the radar acts as a receiver for signals returning from the particles in the air. This phase’s length is determined by the need for the microwave radiation to spread from the detector to the target of the weather. The horizontal distance between the station and the target is calculat...