88th Annual Meeting (20-24 January 2008)

Thursday, 24 January 2008: 5:00 PM
Comparison of Virtual Globe technologies for depiction of radar beam propagation effects and impacts
207 (Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
Scott T. Shipley, George Mason Univ., Fairfax, Virginia; and R. M. Steadham and D. S. Berkowitz
Poster PDF (885.0 kB)
Virtual Globes (VGs) are quickly becoming the new paradigm in the Earth Sciences for education and outreach, logistics, and data access. VGs such as Google Earth, NASA WorldWind, ESRI ArcGIS Explorer, and many others are changing how science professionals and the public view and access geographic information, including observations and forecasts for applications in meteorology and climate, oceanography, and hydrology. This paper compares several current VG platforms for representation of radar beam elevation above the Earth surface. Effects and impacts addressed include beam occultation by terrain, potential interaction with wind power generators, and anomalous propagation.

Supplementary URL: http://wxanalyst.com/radar/