![]() For NCAS, we are excited to make observations in a new region that will allow us to explore many scientific questions about the rainfall processes in mountainous terrain. We are happy to be working with the Environment Agency to provide them with high resolution data in this under-observed region so that they may improve their flood forecasts. Ryan Neely and Lindsay Bennett, scientists at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science added: We’re seeing many benefits from the collaboration including a greater interest from all parties to integrate data from deployments like this, and other third party radars into the national Met Office rainfall products. The deployment of the NCAS radar will help us to build a strong case for investment where it’s needed. Tim Harrison, Senior Advisor for the Environment Agency said: Importantly, the location of the radar will improve the observations of rainfall over Cumbria, helping to make flood forecasting in the area more accurate.ĭata collected by the radar will provide evidence for the need to invest in a permanent solution and help researchers better understand the type of extreme rainfall that sometimes affects Cumbria.Ī separate partnership project between the Environment Agency, Met Office, National Resources Wales, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Department of Infrastructure Northern Ireland is developing a national strategy for the UK’s radar network over the next 15 years and data from the radar will help to support the development of a long term radar solution in Cumbria. The radar measures rain, wind and other parameters. ![]() Weather radars are the most effective way to collect real-time rainfall information and NCAS operates the only mobile weather radar in the UK. Learn more about bringing multiple sources of rainfall data into the national weather radar Provide information to support the development of a long term weather solution for Cumbriaįurther understand the challenges associated with collecting high quality data over mountainous terrain Improve the weather radar coverage in north Cumbria for up to a year The deployment is a collaborative research project between the Environment Agency, the University of Leeds and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science, called Radar Applications in Northern England (RAIN-E). For the next 12 months, the NCAS X-band radar will provide data that will help improve the Environment Agency’s rainfall detection capability and should lead to an improvement in our flood forecasting and warning services. Since hail can cause the rainfall estimates to be higher than what is actually occurring, steps are taken to prevent these high dBZ values from being converted to rainfall.The Environment Agency and the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) have successfully deployed a mobile weather radar in Cumbria. Hail is a good reflector of energy and will return very high dBZ values. These values are estimates of the rainfall per hour, updated each volume scan, with rainfall accumulated over time. Depending on the type of weather occurring and the area of the U.S., forecasters use a set of rainrates which are associated to the dBZ values. The higher the dBZ, the stronger the rainrate. Typically, light rain is occurring when the dBZ value reaches 20. The scale of dBZ values is also related to the intensity of rainfall. The value of the dBZ depends upon the mode the radar is in at the time the image was created. Notice the color on each scale remains the same in both operational modes, only the values change. The other scale (near left) represents dBZ values when the radar is in precipitation mode (dBZ values from 5 to 75). One scale (far left) represents dBZ values when the radar is in clear air mode (dBZ values from -28 to +28). ![]() Each reflectivity image you see includes one of two color scales. The dBZ values increase as the strength of the signal returned to the radar increases. So, a more convenient number for calculations and comparison, a decibel (or logarithmic) scale (dBZ), is used. Reflectivity (designated by the letter Z) covers a wide range of signals (from very weak to very strong). ![]() "Reflectivity" is the amount of transmitted power returned to the radar receiver. The colors are the different echo intensities (reflectivity) measured in dBZ (decibels of Z) during each elevation scan.
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