A New Radar Display System

Neighborhood NEXRAD (tm) is a new system for the display of NEXRAD Doppler radar. The system includes the capability to zoom into any desired area, utilizing a complete street-level geographical database. The user can turn on or off displays of city/town names, metropolitan areas, rivers/streams/bodies of water, highways, streets, and topography on the base map, with a true zoom feature adding more detail as the coverage area gets smaller.

Radar data is overlaid onto the base map, and can be displayed as a loop or showing just the latest data. Also available for display is the potential movement of severe weather, based upon the NEXRAD Storm Attribute Table. The system displays projected movement of severe weather cells over the next hour, and allows the user to display a window with the cities/towns within the storm path, along with the projected time of arrival.

The system is completely interactive, with a standard browser interface. It can be accessed remotely over the Internet, or can be utilized on a local PC receiving NEXRAD Doppler radar data via satellite or the Internet. System display options include RGB display of the map display along with control icons on a PC monitor, and NTSC output of the map/radar display.

Neighborhood NEXRAD is designed for use by a meteorologist to monitor and project severe weather, and is also suitable for use in weather briefings or television weather presentations.