How Does Weather Radar Work On Aircraft

Modern weather radars are mostly pulse doppler radars capable of detecting the motion of rain droplets in addition to the intensity of the precipitation.

How does weather radar work on aircraft. It works the same way any radar works. It bounces a signal off water droplets in the air times their return to give an indication of distance and movement and checks signal strength to give an indication of type of weather. How does the radar work. The transmitted radio waves move through the atmosphere at about the speed of light.

Doppler weather radars are remote sensing instruments and are capable of detecting particle type rain snow hail insects etc intensity and motion. As they strike objects in the atmosphere the energy is scattered in all directions with some of the energy reflected directly back to the radar. How radar works the basics of radars is that a beam of energy called radio waves is emitted from an antenna. Radar data can be used to determine the structure of storms and to help with predicting severity of storms.

Weather radar which is what you will find in the aircraft works exactly like the weather radar you see on t v. As the radar antenna turns it emits extremely short bursts of radio waves called pulses. Each pulse lasts about 0 00000157 seconds 1 57x10 6 with a 0 00099843 second 998 43x10 6 listening period in between.