Airborne Weather Radar


Book Description

Provides an introduction to basic radar theory, describes the use and capabilities of radar controls, reviews weather avoidance strategies, and discusses typical situations confronted by pilots




Navigating Weather


Book Description

Weather radar information is one of the most valuable tools available to pilots to ensure safe, efficient, and comfortable flight operations. Onboard weather radar allows pilots to tactically navigate near and around severe weather with confidence. And with the advent of datalink radar data systems, pilots of all types of aircraft and skill levels can easily access similar vital information. Yet pilots must understand how to use these technologies and their potential flaws to avoid inadvertently getting too close to or penetrating severe weather, which could obviously have detrimental outcomes. Author Dr. David Ison takes you through the fundamental knowledge and skills necessary to operate both airborne and datalink weather radar. With a focus on simplicity and real-world application, Dr. Ison introduces and explains the essential concepts of radar operation and interpretation. Beginning with radar and severe weather theory, he covers attributes of inclement weather phenomena, how they are detected, and how pilots can evaluate these conditions through available radar sources. Airborne weather radar essentials such as attenuation, tilt management, contouring, and gain are explained with real-world examples. The text outlines advanced features including auto-tilt, turbulence detection, wind shear warning systems, and terrain mapping and provides operational strategies for all phases of flight. The detailed sections on datalink radar information explain how the system works, how to use available data, and common pitfalls. Dr. Ison describes the advantages and disadvantages of both airborne and datalink radar systems to help pilots understand the best and most effective use of each. Each chapter provides case examples, concept questions to test your understanding, and scenarios to assess your judgment and evaluation skills. Regardless of your current skill level--and whether you are just considering adding datalink radar to your toolkit or have been flying with airborne radar for years--this book can serve as a fundamental reference on using radar data in flight.




Weather Radar Technology Beyond NEXRAD


Book Description

Weather radar is a vital instrument for observing the atmosphere to help provide weather forecasts and issue weather warnings to the public. The current Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) system provides Doppler radar coverage to most regions of the United States (NRC, 1995). This network was designed in the mid 1980s and deployed in the 1990s as part of the National Weather Service (NWS) modernization (NRC, 1999). Since the initial design phase of the NEXRAD program, considerable advances have been made in radar technologies and in the use of weather radar for monitoring and prediction. The development of new technologies provides the motivation for appraising the status of the current weather radar system and identifying the most promising approaches for the development of its eventual replacement. The charge to the committee was to determine the state of knowledge regarding ground-based weather surveillance radar technology and identify the most promising approaches for the design of the replacement for the present Doppler Weather Radar. This report presents a first look at potential approaches for future upgrades to or replacements of the current weather radar system. The need, and schedule, for replacing the current system has not been established, but the committee used the briefings and deliberations to assess how the current system satisfies the current and emerging needs of the operational and research communities and identified potential system upgrades for providing improved weather forecasts and warnings. The time scale for any total replacement of the system (20- to 30-year time horizon) precluded detailed investigation of the designs and cost structures associated with any new weather radar system. The committee instead noted technologies that could provide improvements over the capabilities of the evolving NEXRAD system and recommends more detailed investigation and evaluation of several of these technologies. In the course of its deliberations, the committee developed a sense that the processes by which the eventual replacement radar system is developed and deployed could be as significant as the specific technologies adopted. Consequently, some of the committee's recommendations deal with such procedural issues.




Introduction to Airborne Radar


Book Description

An introduction to the subject for non-specialists: engineers, technicians, pilots, and aerospace industry marketing, public relations, and customer support personnel. Also a reference for specialists in the field. The completely rewritten and revised Second Edition updates the original published by the Hughes Aircraft Company.




Aviation Weather Surveillance Systems


Book Description

Focusing on radar-based surveillance, this book has been written to provide a comprehensive introduction to the science, sensors and systems that form modern aviation weather surveillance systems.




Weather Radar


Book Description

With their images practically ubiquitious in the daily media, weather radar systems provide data not only for understanding weather systems and improving forecasts (especially critical for severe weather), but also for hydrological applications, flood warnings and climate research in which ground verification is needed for global precipitation measurements by satellites. This book offers an accessible overview of advanced methods, applications and modern research from the European perspective. An extensive introductory chapter summarizes the principles of weather radars and discusses the potential of modern radar systems, including Doppler and polarisation techniques, data processing, and error-correction methods. Addressing both specialist researchers and nonspecialists from related areas, this book will also be useful for graduate students planning to specialize in this field







Radar Meteorology


Book Description

This practical textbook introduces the fundamental physics behind radar measurements, to guide students and practitioners in the proper interpretation of radar reflectivity, Doppler velocity and dual-polarization imagery. Operational applications are explored, such as how radar imagery can be used to analyze and forecast convective and widespread weather systems. The book concludes with an overview of current research topics, including the study of clouds and precipitation using radars, signal processing, and data assimilation. Numerous full-color illustrations are included, as well as problem sets, case studies, and a variety of supplementary electronic material including animated time sequences of images to help convey complex concepts. This book is a valuable resource for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in radar meteorology and other related courses, such as precipitation microphysics and dynamics. It will also make a useful reference for researchers, professional meteorologists and hydrologists.




Radar Imaging of Airborne Targets


Book Description

Radar-based imaging of aircraft targets is a topic that continues to attract a lot of attention, particularly since these imaging methods have been recognized to be the foundation of any successful all-weather non-cooperative target identification technique. Traditional books in this area look at the topic from a radar engineering point of view. Consequently, the basic issues associated with model error and image interpretation are usually not addressed in any substantive fashion. Moreover, applied mathematicians frequently find it difficult to read the radar engineering literature because it is jargon-laden and device specific, meaning that the skills most applicable to the problem's solution are rarely applied. Enabling an understanding of the subject and its current mathematical research issues, Radar Imaging of Airborne Targets: A Primer for Applied Mathematicians and Physicists presents the issues and techniques associated with radar imaging from a mathematical point of view rather than from an instrumentation perspective. The book concentrates on scattering issues, the inverse scattering problem, and the approximations that are usually made by practical algorithm developers. The author also explains the consequences of these approximations to the resultant radar image and its interpretation, and examines methods for reducing model-based error.




Aviation Weather


Book Description