![]() Over 75 Level-III (元) products are routinely available from NCEI. A data file consists of a 24-byte volume scan header record followed by numerous 2,432-byte base data and message records. Data are stored in files that typically contain four, five, six, or ten minutes of base data depending on the volume coverage pattern. Additional categories include dual-polarization base data of differential reflectivity, correlation coefficient, and differential phase. Level-II (L2) data are grouped into three meteorological base quantities: reflectivity, mean radial velocity, and spectrum width. Request Offline Data Data Types NEXRAD Level-II (Base) Data This dataset is not currently available for direct download from NCEI, but is available by request from the offline archive. An inventory of events is available here. An event summary file with descriptive information is included for each case study. The data files have been aggregated by event and by hour for the archive with a total data volume of approximately 20 TB. The data files are in the native compressed file format as Time Series (TS) Archive. The number of case studies per year ranges from 1 to 33, with an average of approximately 10 per year. The period of record is from 2008 to present with additional data years planned. NEXRAD operational sites and test sites are used. It includes only the Level 1 data that has been used for algorithm development and verification by the ROC and its partners. The radar tilts up so it’s never aimed towards the ground or us, but instead through the varying parts of thunderstorms.This dataset contains the Level-I (L1) raw radar event data recorded at Next Generation Radar (NEXRAD) sites and collected by the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) Radar Operations Center (ROC) for specific radar case studies. It’s a giant piece of machinery, and if a human were to stand in the way of the emitting waves, which is strongly discouraged, the human would feel themselves start to heat up like a microwave. As fast as it physically can,” explains Tony Freund, Electronic Technician for the National Weather Service in New Braunfels. During very violent weather, like tornadoes possibly, it’s really spinning fast, and it’s making cuts in the air very quickly. “During calm air, during calm ’s going much slower. Once inside the iconic “soccer ball” in the sky, we saw the giant dish that spins 360 degrees all day long. KSAT climbed almost 90 feet to get inside the “radome” for a better look at what makes these radar images possible. One near Brackettville and one in New Braunfels. Here in San Antonio, we utilize two Doppler radar stations. The reason? They could see the debris field on the Doppler radar image. The NWS issued a tornado warning that day with the wording “tornado on the ground” without any eyewitness evidence. KSAT Meteorologist Adam Caskey shows the radar image during what is later determined to be an EF-2 tornado in Guadalupe County on March 21st, 2022. Improvements are constantly being made to radar technology. Today, there are 159 weather radars strategically placed throughout the U.S. So, after wartime, some of the radars were donated to the Weather Bureau. It was detecting weather where radar proved to be most useful. “Radar was a boon for air traffic controllers, it was also later developed for radio astronomy, and traffic cops now use it to check for speeders,” adds Purifacto. Radars then really took off, and experiments all over the world began. Of course, it was the Japanese invasion fleet of Pearl Harbor,” said Purifacto. “They spotted a flight of planes, they believed was a flight of planes, 136 nautical miles north of Oahu. On December 7, 1941, the first major example of what radar could do took place. The radars eventually started being used to detect aircraft. ![]() “In 1934, they conducted experiments on behalf of the United States Navy because the Navy was concerned again about maritime navigation,” said Rudy Purifacto, Senior Air Force Historian. The Army Signal Corps coined the acronym RADAR, which stands for “radio detection and ranging.” ![]() In the early 1900′s, military ships and planes needed radar to avoid collisions in the fog, but the technology became a means of defense for the first time in World War II. In this episode of KSAT Explains, KSAT meteorologist Justin Horne visits the National Weather Service station in New Braunfels for answers, as well as the Bracken Bat cave, a common hotspot on radar images. Meteorologists and weather experts in South Texas rely heavily on Doppler radar technology, but how does it work? How can a giant soccer-ball-shaped tower, known as the radome, detect clouds hundreds of miles away and send them to a computer as rain?
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