GIS Tools for Radar Siting and Analysis

Desktop Geographic Information System (GIS) tools have been developed and tested for operational applications in weather radar siting and radar beam propagation analysis. Radar characteristics and atmospheric propagation parameters are input variables. Radar beam blockage is estimated using digital elevation models, plus additional information on vegetation and manmade obstacles. Our technique compares favorably with the original NEXRAD site surveys conducted by Stanford Research Institute (SRI), and duplicates independent results provided by the NEXRAD Radar Operations Center (ROC). Verification is performed using Level 2 data. Results include triangulation to radar location, estimation of radar sampling voids due to terrain occultation, and verification of radar refraction models.