WSR-88Ds range from very near sea level to more than 3.05 km (10 000 ft) above mean sea level (MSL), interpretation of Fig. Because the elevations of the individual western U.S. Terrain elevations for the country and the locations of the WSR-88Ds are shown in Fig. 1 for the western third of the United States appears, particularly to the casual reader or user of WSR-88D data, to be very good. The coverage of the WSR-88D network depicted in Fig. 1), interpretation of this radar coverage chart is reasonably straightforward. If adjacent radars are at reasonably similar elevations (e.g., the eastern half of Fig. This chart shows radar coverage (at 10 000 ft above the elevation of each individual radar) for the WSR-88D network and indicates nearly complete coverage for the contiguous United States. 1, which is from the NRC ( NRC 1995) report.

The chart that appears most frequently in the literature (e.g., Klazura and Imy 1993 Serafin and Wilson 2000) to illustrate the coverage of the WSR-88D network is shown in Fig. This brief note presents several spatial coverage maps for the WSR-88D network to heighten awareness within the user community of weaknesses and strengths of the data. It is the authors' experience that users, or potential users, of data from the radar network are often unaware of the details of the spatial coverage of the data. The spectrum of users of data from the radar network is very wide and includes operational meteorologists, hydrologists, climatologists, atmospheric and hydrologic modelers, and a wide variety of researchers. The WSR-88D data have proved valuable for use and applications far beyond storm detection and warning functions of the NWS. Over the eastern United States, the coverage for this phenomena is nearly comprehensive, but it is very limited over the western United States. 2-5a in the NRC report (not shown here) illustrates the coverage of the new radar system for detecting macrobursts, where it was assumed that the top of the median macroburst extends to 3 km above ground level (AGL). 1) showing the coverage of the new system for a variety of weather phenomena. For the detection of specific weather phenomena-supercells, mini-supercells, macrobursts, lake-effect snow, and stratiform snow-the NEXRAD coverage is much greater than it was for the old system….” The improvements were illustrated in a number of report tables and figures (e.g., Fig. The NRC report concluded that, “in comparison with the old network, the NEXRAD network will cover a much broader area of the contiguous United States. The National Research Council ( NRC 1995) conducted a comprehensive assessment of the spatial coverage and detection capabilities of the new national radar network. The radars currently are usually referred to as Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D). This program, and its component radars, was originally known as Next-Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD). The development and continued support of the radar network was, and is, a joint agency program of the National Weather Service (NWS), the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Defense.

The implementation of a national network of operational Doppler weather radars has resulted in greatly improved precipitation and storm monitoring over the contiguous United States (e.g., Crum et al. Thus, these regions are characterized by very comprehensive radar information that could be used in many kinds of research studies. The analyses also identify several regions of the contiguous United States in which weather phenomena are sampled by many adjacent radars. These maps indicate how restricted the national radar network coverage is at low levels, which limits the usefulness of the radar data, especially for quantitative precipitation estimation. Radar coverage charts at heights of 1, 2, and 3 km above ground level illustrate the extent of low-level radar data gathered above the actual land surface. Charts generated for radar coverage at 3 and 5 km above mean sea level show that radar surveillance near 700 and 500 hPa is very limited for some portions of the contiguous United States.

This information is of importance to a wide variety of users, and potential users, of radar data from the national network. Terrain and radar beam-elevation data are used to examine the spatial coverage provided by the national operational network of Doppler weather radars.

Southeast united states doppler radar