85th AMS Annual Meeting

Wednesday, 12 January 2005: 5:00 PM
Weather radar terrain occultation modeling using GIS
Scott Shipley, Raytheon ITSS, Upper Marlboro, MD; and I. A. Graffman and R. E. Saffle
Poster PDF (1.8 MB)
Geographic Information System techniques are applied to estimate the effects of terrain and manmade obstacles on radar beam propagation, and their resulting impact on radar coverage over regions of interest. The resulting radar coverage patterns can be combined with geographic data layers to analyze societal impacts of radar occultation, including protected population numbers and demographics, and radar signal vertical extents over drainage basins. This technique is being studied for operational applications to the problems of radar siting and optimal radar network distribution. The technique currently supports customary radar beam elevations, but also includes predictions for negative beam elevation angles. Radar beam ducting is not yet addressed. Limitations of this approach and recommendations for technique improvement are provided.

Supplementary URL: http://geog.gmu.edu/projects/wxproject/