Radar Errors and Limitations

(more details on JetStream - great generous site for the public!!!)

Radar is a detector that has its limitations, first of it is the ... fact that the Earth is curve while the beam propagates with a smaller curvature, so, the beam is bending upward with the distance. Further the echoes are on the screen, the higher is the sample! (you can use the graphic above to have an idea about this variation).

But this has a great advantage in... the wind field. It enables us to see the wind shear (how wind changes with height) in a single glance (some details here:

http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/rs/rad/ptrn/ptrn1.rxml).

And this is the real advantage of Doppler radar in front of other detectors because the wind shear actually controls the severity of a convective development.

Radar is all a trade, or better say that learns you how to change the weakeness into a strength.