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03/12/2010 (5:01 am)

S. FL hurricane strength easier to predict with new radar

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  • MIAMI It stands like a sentry, on the lookout for tempests round-the-clock. Yet, until this year, South Florida's primary weather Doppler radar had been unable to detect the most dreaded of tropical storms, those that explode in strength just before reaching land.

    Now, the bulbous installation in remote southwestern Miami-Dade County has been enhanced with a new program to better predict a storm's intensity at the point of impact. That should spur better hurricane preparations and evacuations, officials said.

    We're hoping that when there's this trend of rapid intensification, this program will essentially ring a bell for us," said Colin McAdie, a research meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami-Dade County.

    Called VORTRAC, for Vortex Objective Radar Tracking and Circulation, the program, in essence, is a mathematical formula. When used to sift and rearrange data furnished by the radar, it gives forecasters a close reading of the atmospheric pressure at a storm's heart.

    With that measurement supplied every six minutes — as opposed to several hours prior to the program — forecasters can quickly spot any strengthening or weakening. Developed by two government agencies, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., and the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., the program is being field-tested for the first time this year.
    http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/loc...home-headlines


  • Is this title of this thread from the article? If so - the title is incorrect, as this is not a new radar, but a new processing algorithm using existing NWS radars along the coast. There was a thread on this topic posted a while back as well.

    http://www.stormtrack.org/forum/showthread.php?t=12513&highlight=VORTRAC







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