Nowcast Manual 2015

No.
ESSO/IMD/Nowcasting/Synoptic Met-TS/03(2015)/19
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES
INDIA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT
NEW DELHI
OPERATIONAL MANUAL
for Thunderstorm NOWCAST
Compiled By
NOWCAST UNIT,
OFFICE OF DIRECTOR GENERAL OF METEOROLOGY,
NEW DELHI
No. ESSO/IMD/Nowcasting/Synoptic Met-TS/03(2015)/19
GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES
INDIA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT
NEW DELHI
OPERATIONAL MANUAL
FOR THUNDERSTORM
NOWCASTING
NOWCAST UNIT,
OFFICE OF DIRECTOR GENERAL OF METEOROLOGY,
NEW DELHI
i
DECEMBER, 2015
INDIA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT (IMD)
Number: ESSO/IMD/Nowcasting/Synoptic Met-TS/03(2015)/19

Title: Operational Manual for Thunderstorm Nowcast
Author(s):
Kamaljit Ray, Bikram Sen, Pradeep Sharma, Anwar Husain Warsi, Manik Chandra,
S.C. Bhan, Soma Sen Roy.
Type of Document:
Scientific Manual
Number of Pages and Figures: 106, 73
Number of References: 26
Reviewing and Approving Authority:
Director General of Meteorology, IMD
Security Classification:
Unclassified
Distribution:
Unrestricted
Date of Publication:
December, 2015
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Nowcast Operational Manual is the result of valuable inputs provided by

various scientists, officers working in different fields like Nowcasting, DWR and
NWP etc. in India Meteorological Department. I express my deep sense of gratitude to
them. The manual has been prepared by Nowcasting Unit in the office of DDGM
(Services), New Delhi. I express my sincere thanks to officers and staff of the
Nowcasting unit for provided full technical support.
Kamaljit Ray
Scientist, ‘E’
&
Head, Nowcast Unit
iii
PREFACE
The importance and reliability of DWR based information for nowcast of
thunderstorms and associated weathers, like squall, hailstorm etc. is well known. Nowcasting
of thunderstorms/squalls and hailstorms in stations covered by Doppler Weather Radars was
implemented in December 2012 for 125 cities, which have now increased to 156 cities with
the expansion of Doppler Weather Radar networks and in future this number is expected to
increase further. It has also benefited from major developments in observational meteorology
and computer-based interactive data processing and display systems in IMD.
In present day scenario, with inclusion of SMS Alert services to farmers and various
disaster managers by IMD for severe weather events like thunderstorms squalls and
hailstorm, the accurate nowcasting of these weather events is very crucial and can prevent a
lot of damage to life and property. Therefore, it is very important for a nowcaster to
understand nowcasting and have a basic knowledge of Doppler Weather Radar products and
how to use them for nowcasting purpose. So, there was a need to have an operational manual
on Nowcast for capacity building & to have uniformity and better co-ordination between
various IMD nowcasting offices across the country. The present document is an outcome of
dedicated efforts of the nowcast team of IMD. I congratulate them for coming out with this
useful and handy document. The spirit of coordination and support extended by authors who
provided valuable inputs for the successful completion of Nowcast Operational Manual is
greatly appreciated and duly acknowledged. I hope that the document would prove a useful
reference material for improving nowcast skills of various nowcasters engaged in nowcasting
of severe weather events across different MCs/RMCs.
(L.S. Rathore)
Director General of Meteorology
India Meteorological Department
iv
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements iii
Preface iv
Chapter 1 Thunderstorm Nowcasting and Verification-2014 1
Chapter 2 Functional Aspects of Doppler Weather Radar 21
Chapter 3 Radar Elements and Displays 32
Chapter 4 Classification of Weather Radar Echoes 42
Chapter 5 Use of WDSS-II in Operational Nowcasting 79
Chapter 6 SOP for All India Nowcast Services 89
References 93
v
vi
1.
THUNDERSTORM NOWCASTING
& VERIFICATION-2014
Kamaljit Ray, Bikram Sen, Pradeep Sharma, A. H. Warsi
India Meteorological Department, New Delhi
I. Introduction:
Thunderstorm is a severe weather phenomenon, which develops mainly due to intense
convection and is accompanied by heavy rainfall, thunder, lightning, hail and often with the
passage of a squall line. It is the towering cumulus or the cumulonimbus clouds of
convective origin with high vertical extent that is capable of producing lightning and thunder.
Usually, these thunderstorms have the spatial extent of a few kilometres and life span less
than an hour. In India, these thunderstorms reach severity when continental air meets warm
moist air from ocean in the lower troposphere. The eastern and north eastern part of the
country i.e. Bihar, Gangetic West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Assam and other states of NE
India gets most affected by severe thunderstorms during pre-monsoon months (March-May),
in particular, during April & May. These thunderstorms are locally named as “Kalbaishakhi”
which means calamities in the month of Baishakh. Strong heating of landmass during mid-
day initiates convection over Jharkhand Plateau which moves southeast and gets intensified
by mixing with warm moist air-mass from the Bay of Bengal. These storms are also known
as “Nor-westers” as they move generally from northwest to southeast direction. Fig.1.1
shows the annual climatology of thunderstorms and Fig.1.2 & 1.3 depict respectively, the
climatology of thunderstorms during April and May over India based on 30 years data (1961-
1990) (Tyagi, et. al., 2007).
In India during the year 2013, a three hourly nowcast system of thunderstorm, squall
and hail storm was developed by IMD for 120 cities in India. These nowcasts are primarily
made by forecasters at various MCs and RMCs of IMD. With the installation of DWR at
Bhopal in 2014, Srinagar in 2015 and addition of few more stations, the number of cities
covered under Nowcast has increased to 156 (Fig. 1.4).
1
Fig.1.1: Annual Climatology of Thunderstorms over India (1961-1990)
Fig.1.2: Climatology of Thunderstorms over India in April
2
Fig.1.3: Climatology of Thunderstorms over India in May
Fig. 1.4: Stations issuing Thunderstorm Nowcast
3
II. Nowcasting Tools:
The forecasters use the following technology for thunderstorm nowcast:
a. Synoptic Evaluation:
The first step in nowcasting of thunderstorm is to analyse the prevailing and
forecasted synoptic situation and assess if the conditions are favourable for thunderstorm
occurrence. The climatology of thunderstorm of the station selected for nowcasting are
known (monthly frequency, peak time of occurrence). Depending upon the season, the broad
synoptic patterns for thunderstorm occurrence should also be known. Analysis of surface
synoptic charts and streamlines indicates the presence/absence of synoptic features which
will lead to instability or moisture incursion in a certain area. For example the position of
induced low pressure at surface, during the passage of western disturbance and westerly
trough at 200 hPa are important for thunderstorm formation over Northwest, east and
Northeast India. Pressure tendencies, Wind directions, Upper air circulations also are known
from synoptic chart analysis.
b. NWP Guideline:
The second step would be to examine the graphical NWP generated products for the
area of interest. NWP models do not forecast thunderstorms directly; however, these can
predict the atmospheric conditions in advance. Various models indicate the movement of
certain large scale disturbances, which may affect a certain area on a particular day. Low
level convergence and upper level divergence are ideal conditions for severe thunderstorm
development. Strong vertical wind shear & moisture incursion at lower levels are also
important for severe thunderstorm development. Various NWP derived products like LCL,
potential vorticity, 200hpa divergence, 850hpa vorticity are useful for assessing the stability
condition of atmosphere at a particular place/region.
c. Thermodynamic Features:
Third step would be to examine the thermodynamic features at or near the places of
forecast. Many thermodynamic indices are used for thunderstorm forecasting. These need to
be tested and validated for the location of interest for critical values. Based on the
Radiosonde ascent, the indices mentioned below can be calculated to exactly underline the
area of occurrence of convective weather. INSAT-3d sounder products give continuous
4
tracking of some of these parameters including temperature & moisture vertical profiles.
These indices are:
a) CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy)- It is the measure of the amount
of energy available for convection. It represents the work done on the parcel by
the environment to lift it up from LFC (Level of free convection) to equilibrium
level. Higher values of CAPE indicate greater potential for severe weather.
b) CIN (Convective Inhibition Energy) - Its gives measure of how unlikely
thunderstorm development is. It gives the amount of energy that will prevent an
air parcel from rising from the surface to the level of free convection.
Therefore, for convection to occur high values of CAPE & low value of CIN are
required.
c) Lifted Index (LI) =T500-TP500
where, T500 -Environmental temperature ( 0C) & TP500 - 500mb temperature,
which a parcel will achieve if it is, lifted dry adiabatically from the surface to its
lifted condensation level(LCL) & then moist adiabatically to 500mb.
Threshold
LI < 0 - possible thunderstorms
LI < -4 - possible severe thunderstorms
d) Total Total Index, TT= Td850 + T850 - 2(T500 ) or (Td850 - T500 ) + (T850 - T500 )
Threshold
TT > 44 - Slight chance of Thunderstorm
TT > 50 - Moderate chance of severe thunderstorms
TT > 55 - Strong chance of severe thunderstorms
e) K Index, K = T850 - T500 + T850 - (T700 - Td700)
Threshold
K > 35: 80-90% probability of thunderstorm
K > 40: 100% probability of thunderstorm
d. Final Step:
Once the current & forecasted synoptic condition have been assessed as favourable
for thunderstorm occurrence & the NWP products also ensure the same, the thermodynamic
parameters/Indices are examined. On concluding that the overall inputs indicate a situation
and environment which is favourable for thunderstorm occurrence over the location of
interest, the forecaster has to target the most probable time of occurrence and that is where
the nowcast comes into play. Utilising the latest satellite imagery and Doppler Radar data, the
5
nowcast is issued. DWR tracks the convective echo for its intensity and direction of
movement.
Therefore regular monitoring of the following products is done for thunderstorm Nowcast:
 DWR products such as Max Z (250 km), PPI_Z (500 km), VVP_2, PPI_V (250 km) and
also animation sequence of above images at every half an hour interval.
 Satellite pictures at every one hourly interval have to be observed for convective system
development.
 All India weather forecast issued by NWFC and Storm Bulletin issued by Nowcast Unit
under STORM Project to be reviewed each day for any thunderstorm advisory.
 Data from Automatic Weather Station (AWS), Current weather data from Automatic
Weather Observing System (AWOS) and RAPID for satellite guidance (link available in
website).
 NWP model guidance.
 All RWFCs and SWFCs having expert system WDSSII installed in the Doppler Weather
Radar should issue Nowcast as per the guidance of the expert system. The officers will
be trained by NWP Division, New Delhi for utilising this product.
III. Nowcast Verification:

The verification of Thunderstorm Nowcasts issued every three hourly (daily) was
done based on the past weather reported every three hourly by IMD observatories located in
various cities. Due to non-availability of observatory at all locations, it was difficult to verify
the nowcast for all stations. Therefore, for a total of 85 stations (Fig. 1.5), the nowcast issued
for thunderstorms, every three hourly was verified based on the actual data collected in the
nearby IMD observatories. The occurrence/ non-occurrence of the thunderstorm event was
verified using various statistical parameters like; Forecast Accuracy (ACC), Probability of
Detection (POD), False-Alarm Ratio (FAR), Critical Success Index (CSI) and Equitable
Threat Score (ETS). Unlike POD and FAR, CSI does not use the correct non-events value
and is sensitive to the climatology of the event, tending to give poorer score for rare events.
ETS is designed to help offset this tendency. It removes the hits recorded by chance from the
scores. This paper describes the nowcasting system of India Meteorological Department and
its verification results.
6
Verification Results-2014:
The difficulties in prognosticating the development of thunderstorms are well known.
A successful forecast of severe thunderstorms depends as much upon the forecaster as on the
timely availability of various observations. The skill and experience of the forecaster,
continuous monitoring, his familiarity with the regional weather and meticulous attention to
details contribute largely in timely forecasts and warning of thunderstorms.
To categorise the Nowcast into excellent, good and bad category for POD, CSI &
ETS and vice-versa for FAR, the scores were divided into three categories i.e. greater than
0.8, 0.4 to 0.8 and less than 0.4 respectively. Fig. 1.6 shows the percentage of stations that
fall in the above three scales of FAR. FAR was excellent (<0.4) for more than 50% of the
stations in July, August and September, 2014 and for 30 to 50% of the stations during
January to June, 2014. It was very high and thus categorised as bad for 60% of stations in
February and around 30% of stations in March, 2014. POD was excellent (>0.8) for more
than 60 % of the stations in July and August, 2014 and it was low i.e. categorised as bad for
around 40% of stations in January, February and March, 2014 (Fig. 1.7). Fig. 1.8 gives
month-wise Ratio Scores. It shows that the Ratio scores were excellent for more than 90% of
the stations in all the months except February, 2014 and it was due to high number of
nowcasts for “No thunderstorm” that was observed. ETS was excellent (>0.8) in July and
August, 2014 for around 60 % of the stations and bad (<0.4) in January & May, 2014 for
around 50 % of the stations (Fig. 1.9). Similarly CSI was > 0.8 for maximum number of
stations (30-40 %) in January, June, July, August and September, 2014 and bad (<0.4) for
more than 50% of the stations in February and March, 2014 (Fig. 1.10). It was seen that the
results were poor for various scores in January, February and March. It is important to
mention that the thunderstorm warnings issued during these months were very less and thus
the occurrence of isolated events has biased the results.
The average monthly results were also compiled for pre-monsoon and monsoon
seasons (Fig.1.11 & 1.12) and it was seen that for monsoon season, the FAR was generally
low and POD values were high as compared to pre-monsoon months. This was contrary to
the results of 2013, where the performance was better in pre-monsoon as compared to
monsoon months. The average ETS scores were more than 0.6 for June, July and August
indicating lesser number of missed events as compared to other months. Average CSI scores
were also around 0.6 for monsoon months June, July and August indicating lesser False
Alarms as compared to other months.
7
Table.1.1 gives All India monthly average statistical scores for Nowcast for the entire
country. The All India average POD was 0.6 and average FAR was 0.4. Average ETS and
CSI both were 0.5 and 0.4 respectively. The results were also analysed region-wise and it was
found that they varied from one region to another. Table 1.2 to Table 1.11 show the monthly
average statistical scores of thunderstorm Nowcast by stations in various regions/states.
Average POD values were excellent (>0.8) in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Bihar & East
Uttar Pradesh and bad (<0.4) in Meghalaya, Mizoram & Tripura. Average FAR values were
excellent (<0.4) and thus low for Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Punjab and Assam and were bad &
very high (>0.8) for West Bengal and Odisha. The average ETS & CSI values were excellent
(>0.8) for Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan & Punjab and bad (<0.4) for Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand,
West Uttar Pradesh (RMC New Delhi) and Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur & Tripura (MC
Agartala).
Table 1.12 represents verification of hailstorm and squall nowcasts issued by
different MCs/RMCs. Three hailstorm & five squall warnings were issued by MC
Chandigarh for stations under their coverage (Table 1.13) and all were realised except two
hailstorms and one squall events, which were missed. None of the forecasted warnings issued
by other centres, were realised and thus were categorised as false alarms.
Table 2.14 gives various categories of Nowcasts issued for various regions.
Maximum Nowcasts were issued during the year 2014 by MC Hyderabad and lowest by
RMC Nagpur (MC Bhopal and RMC Mumbai became operational after Monsoon Season).
The highest number of warnings was issued by RMC New Delhi followed by RMCs Jaipur
and Guwahati. After the verification it was found that false alarm ration for RMC New Delhi
was very high as compared to MC Jaipur with almost same number of warnings issued by
them. Random checking of verification scores during Pre-monsoon were found to be not very
accurate for some of the IMD centres and thus some results are not included in this paper.
Improvements in the statistical skill scores can be achieved by adopting warning strategies
that specifically target deficiencies in assessing ‘Over-warning’ or ‘Under-warning’. Since
the verification of Nowcasts were done based on data recorded in IMD observatory. One of
the reasons for high False Alarm could be, non-recording of the convective event by the
nearest IMD station and occurrence of event in its near vicinity. In severe weather, individual
forecasters have different thresholds for issuing warnings. Therefore experience of the
forecaster in identifying the storm initiation, growth and evolution is one of the important
criteria in deciding the skill of the thunderstorm nowcast.
8
Fig. 1.5: Stations included in forecast Verification-2014
Fig. 1.6: Month-wise Categorisation of FAR for Nowcast Stations in India for 2014
9
Fig. 1.7: Month-wise Categorisation of POD for Nowcast Stations in India for 2014
Fig.1.8: Month-wise Categorisation of Ratio Score for Nowcast Stations in India for 2014
10
Fig. 1.9: Month-wise Categorisation of ETS for Nowcast Stations in India for 2014
Fig. 1.10: Month-wise Categorisation of CSI for Nowcast Stations in India for 2014
11
Fig. 1.11: All India Average Skill Scores during Pre-monsoon Season for 2014
Fig. 1.12: All India Average Skill Scores during Monsoon Season for 2014
12
Table 1.1: All India Monthly average scores for verification of Thunderstorm, Squall
and Hailstorm Nowcast for 2014
RATIO Nowcasts
Month POD FAR ETS CSI
SCORE Uploaded
January 1.0 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.3 17683
February 0.9 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.3 16079
March 1.0 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.4 18474
April 0.9 0.6 0.4 0.6 0.5 24395
May 0.9 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.5 20266
June 0.9 0.7 0.4 0.6 0.5 13587
July 0.9 0.8 0.4 0.7 0.5 21411
August 0.9 0.8 0.4 0.6 0.5 3370
September 0.9 0.6 0.4 0.5 0.4 13083
Average 0.9 0.6 0.4 0.5 0.4
Table 1.2: Monthly average scores for verification of Thunderstorm, Squall and Hailstorm
Nowcast for cities in West Bengal and Odisha (RMC Kolkata) for 2014
RATIO Nowcasts
SCORE Uploaded
April 1.0 0.5 0.8 0.6 0.2 2669
May 1.0 0.4 0.8 0.3 0.6 2365
June 0.9 0.5 0.7 0.2 0.2 1534
Average 0.9 0.5 0.85 0.4 0.4
13
Nowcast for cities in Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand and West Uttar Pradesh
(RMC New Delhi) for 2014
RATIO Nowcasts
SCORE Uploaded
January 1.0 0.7 0.7 0.4 0.5 2191
February 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.5 0.3 1968

March 0.9 0.7 0.7 0.2 0.4 1906
April 0.0 0.5 0.6 0.3 0.3 2259
May 1.0 Verification not done 1965
June 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.1 0.4 1407
July 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.4 0.3 2352
August 0.8 0.6 0.7 0.1 0.3 429
September 0.9 0.6 0.8 0.3 0.2 1521
Average 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.3 0.3
Nowcast for cities in Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura (MC Agartala) for 2014
RATIO Nowcasts
SCORE Uploaded
January No Warning Issued 1974
February No Warning Issued 1677
March 1.0 0.2 0.3 0.8 0.4 1607

April 1.0 0.4 0.5 0.3 0.2 1720
May 0.9 0.3 0.7 0.2 0.2 1330
June 0.9 0.4 0.8 0.1 0.2 893
July 1.0 0.3 0.7 0.2 0.1 1644
August 0.9 0.3 0.7 0.3 0.2 144
September 0.9 0.3 0.7 0.1 0.2 966
Average 1.0 0.2 0.6 0.2 0.2
14
Nowcast for cities in Tamilnadu (RMC Chennai) for 2014
RATIO Nowcasts
SCORE Uploaded
January No Warning Issued 1517
February No Warning Issued 1269

March No Warning Issued 2363
April 1.0 1.0 0.2 1.0 0.8 2706
May 1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9 2243
June 1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 1.0 1440
July 1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9 2383
August 1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9 326
September 1.0 0.9 0.1 0.9 0.9 1441
Average 1.0 1.0 0.1 0.9 1.0
Nowcast for cities in Uttar Pradesh (MC Lucknow) for 2014
RATIO Nowcasts
SCORE Uploaded
January 0.9 0.3 0.7 0.2 0.3 1803
February 0.8 0.2 1.0 0.0 0.2 1667
March 1.0 0.6 0.8 0.3 0.3 1835
April 1.0 0.4 0.4 1.0 0.4 3223
May 1.0 0.6 0.8 0.3 0.3 2448
June 0.9 0.9 0.4 0.6 0.7 1634
July 0.9 0.9 0.4 0.3 0.6 2747
August 0.9 0.9 0.5 0.3 0.5 474
September 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.4 0.3 1533
Average 0.9 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.4
15
Nowcast for cities in Rajasthan (MC Jaipur) for 2014
RATIO Nowcasts
SCORE Uploaded
DWR Jaipur was unserviceable from January to May-2014
1.0 1.0 0.2 1.0 0.8 1625

June
1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 0.9 2626

July
1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9 481

August
1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9 1645

September
Average 1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9
Table 1.8 Monthly average scores for verification of Thunderstorm, Squall and Hailstorm
Nowcast for cities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
(MC Hyderabad) for 2014
RATIO Nowcasts
SCORE Uploaded
DWR Hyderabad and DWR Machilipatnam was stopped for annual maintenance
during January and February-2014
March 1.0 0.6 0.9 0.5 0.1 3033
April 1.0 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.3 3440
May 0.9 0.6 0.7 0.4 0.4 2734
June 1.0 1.0 0.5 1.0 0.5 1601
July 1.0 1.0 0.5 1.0 0.5 2821
August 0.9 0.6 0.7 0.3 0.4 471
September 0.9 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.3 1701
Average 1.0 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.4
16
Nowcast for cities in Punjab (MC Chandigarh) for 2014
RATIO Nowcasts
SCORE Uploaded
January 1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9 2155
February 1.0 1.0 0.2 1.0 0.8 1976
March 1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9 1979
April 1.0 0.9 0.1 0.9 0.8 2109
May 1.0 0.9 0.1 0.9 0.8 1667
June 1.0 1.0 0.2 0.9 0.9 1051
July 1.0 0.9 0.1 0.9 0.9 1809
August 1.0 1.0 0.1 0.9 0.9 293
September 1.0 0.9 0.1 0.8 0.9 1152
Average 1.0 0.9 0.1 0.9 0.9
Nowcast for cities in Bihar and East Uttar Pradesh (MC Patna) for 2014
Month RATIO POD FAR ETS CSI Nowcasts
SCORE Uploaded
January 2058
February 640
No Warning Issued
March 280
April 1998
May 1.0 0.8 0.2 0.8 0.8 2118
June 1.0 0.9 0.2 0.8 0.8 1430
July 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.4 1650
August 1.0 1.0 0.7 0.9 0.5 250
September 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.2 987
Average 1.0 0.9 0.5 0.8 0.5
17
Nowcast for cities in Assam (RMC Guwahati) for 2014
RATIO Nowcasts
SCORE Uploaded
January,
February No Verification Done
March 0.9 0.5 0.5 0.6 0.2 1733
April 0.9 0.4 0.2 0.5 0.4 1850
May 0.9 0.4 0.4 0.1 0.4 1057
June 0.9 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.3 972
July 0.9 0.5 0.0 0.9 0.5 1022
August 0.9 0.5 0.0 1.0 0.5 132
September 0.9 0.5 0.1 0.7 0.5 612
Average 0.9 0.5 0.3 0.6 0.4
Table 1.12: Verification of Hailstorm and Squall warning issued by various offices
in 2014
Hailstorm Squall
S. No. Nowcast issuing station
Issued Realised Issued Realised
1. MC Chandigarh 3 5 5 6
2. RMC Chennai 1 0 0 0
3. RMC Nagpur 3 0 0 0
4. MC Jaipur 3 Not Verified - -
5. RMC Kolkata - - 1 0
6. MC Hyderabad 2 Not Verified - -
18
Table 1.13 Hailstorms and squalls warnings issued by MC Chandigarh in 2014
Station Warning Time of Issue
Chandigarh F/C : Hailstorm February 15, 2014 5:57 PM
Ludhiana F/C : Hailstorm February 15, 2014 5:57 PM
Patiala F/C : Hailstorm February 15, 2014 7:01 PM
Ludhiana F/C : Hailstorm February 15, 2014 7:01 PM
Ambala F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM
Patiala F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM
Chandigarh F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM
Ludhiana F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM
Bhiwani F/C : Hailstorm March 28, 2014 4:23 PM
Ambala F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM
Patiala F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM
Chandigarh F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM
Ludhiana F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM
Bhiwani F/C : Hailstorm March 28, 2014 4:23 PM
Table 1.14 Number of Various Nowcast Warnings Issued by IMD Offices in 2014
No. of Warnings Issued
S. No. Station Name Total
TS MTS STS Hailstorm Squall
1. MC Jaipur 18665 2347 12 3 0 21027
2. MC Chandigarh 16303 769 0 6 8 17086
3. MC Hyderabad 23781 1100 5 1 1 24888
4. MC Delhi 17567 2371 5 0 0 19943
5. RMC Kolkata 14004 1799 0 0 2 15805
6. MC Lucknow 20027 1877 0 0 0 21904
7. MC Patna 13388 568 3 0 0 13959
8. MC Agartala 13335 929 6 0 0 14270
9. RMC Nagpur 6787 1933 0 3 0 8723
10. RMC Chennai 18134 1229 2 1 0 19366
19
11. RMC Guwahati 11205 2035 2 0 0 13242
12. RMC Mumbai 3597 417 25 0 0 4039
13. MC Bhopal 205 0 0 0 0 205
Legends: MTS: Moderate Thunderstorm, STS: Severe Thunderstorm
-------
20
2.
FUNCTIONAL ASPECTS OF DOPPLER WEATHER
RADAR
Manik Chandra & Kamaljit Ray
I. Introduction:
A Doppler Weather Radar is specialized Radar that uses Doppler Effect to produce
velocity data about objects at a distance. It can measure both precipitation and wind. The
radar emits a short pulse of energy, and if the pulse strikes an object (raindrop, snowflake,
bug, bird, etc), the radar waves are scattered in all directions. A small portion of that scattered
energy is directed back towards the radar. The radar analyses how the object’s motion has
altered the frequency of the return signal and thus gives direct & highly accurate
measurements of radial component of the target’s velocity relative to the radar.
Presently, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is having a network of 18
Doppler Weather Radars. These Doppler radars can detect most precipitation within
approximately 150 km all around the respective radar station, and intense rain or snow within
approximately 250 km . However, light rain, light snow, or drizzle from shallow cloud
weather systems is not necessarily detected.
Radar works on the echo-sounding principle. When a radio wave emitted by a
transmitter meets any object, a part of the energy contained in the radiation is reflected, a part
is transmitted through, a part is scattered in all directions and a part is absorbed by the
material of the object. The relative proportions of the energy disposed of in various ways
depend on the properties of the object and its position and orientation relative to the incident
radiation.
Fig. 2.1: WSR-98D/S radar
21
II. Basic Radar Concepts:
a. Basic operation of Radar:
Radar emits a pulse of electromagnetic energy (Fig. 2.1) which is scattered by the
atmosphere and weather phenomenon, but only very small portion of this energy is returned
back to the antenna of the radar and this tiny energy received by highly sensitive radar
receiver is processed by the radar processor and thus used to generate various kind of radar
product with the help of respective product algorithms. Generally Weather Radars operate in
the S, C and X band of the electromagnetic spectrum. These energy bands correspond to
wavelengths of 2.5 to 4 cm for X-band, 4 to 8 cm for C-band, and 8 to 12 cm for S-band
radars. Most operational weather radars have S-band of wavelengths around 10 cm, (3 GHz
frequency) in order to minimize the attenuation issues associated with the shorter wavelength
radars. The reflectivity products are generated with the dBZ scales, wherein the dBZ
(decibels), is the unit of the intensity of returned radar energy (reflectivity).
b. Concept of Radar Beam:

Radar energy is emitted by an antenna that directs the energy in a particular direction.
This emission is referred to as the radar beam. Typical beam width is 1 degree. Although the
majority of energy is directed along the beam, some energy spreads out in other directions
also. This pattern of emission is referred to as the antenna beam pattern and is composed of
several intensity maxima called side lobes. In processing the returned energy, it is assumed
that all the energy comes from the aimed direction of the beam.
c. Effects of Beam Broadening on Detection of Circulation:

The radar Antenna beam is the “Pencil Beam”, means the beam is broadening
continuously with respect to increase in distance (aspect ratio) which affects the detection of
circulations within the thunderstorm (Fig. 2.2). Detection of these circulations is important
because they are often indications of severity of weather phenomena and sometimes can be a
precursor to a development of very severe weather event like tornado.
22
Range (nm) Beam Diameter (nm)
30 0.5
60 1.0
120 2.0
180 3.0
240 4.0
Fig.2.2: Left image shows the effect of broadening of beam & right is a table related
with diameter of Beam broadening with respect to range.
In the Fig. 2.3 (left image), if imagine that we are above the ground and looking
downward to the ground at a counterclockwise circulation inside three different
thunderstorms. Note that if the circulation is situated entirely within the beam of the radar, it
will not be detected by the radar.
Volume Coverage Pattern 11
Fig. 2.3: In left side Radar beam elevation above ground level at lowest slice – 0.50 & in the right
presentation of radar beam at different elevation angles.
d. Radar Horizon:
The elevation of the center of the radar beam (above the Earth’s surface) increases
with distance from the radar. This is because the radar beam (in general) travels in a straight
line while the Earth’s surface is curved. For example, the height of the lowest elevation slice
(0.5 degree) is about 5,000 ft (1.52km) AGL (above ground level) at 60 nm (nautical miles)
from the radar, while at 120 nm the beam height is about 15,000 ft (4.57km) AGL (yellow
23
squares with in red circle on diagram to the right). To clearly understand this Horizon effect,
please read the following examples {Fig. 2.4 (a) & (b)}:
Consider a thunderstorm that is 50,000 feet (Left
image) and an approximately 110 nm from the
radar. At this distance, the lowest elevation slice
of the radar cannot “see” below about 12,000 ft.
Thus any counterclockwise circulation within the
thunderstorm below 12,000 ft AGL capable of
spawning a tornado will not be detected because
the radar beam is shooting over the top of the
circulation (red inverted triangle). In addition,
recall that because the storm is so far away, the
width of the radar beam will be very broad, thus
even if the circulation was deep enough to be
sampled by the radar, it would probably not be
detected as the circulation will likely fall entirely
within the radar beam (aspect ratio problem).
(a)
The image to the right is a vertical cross-section of

reflectivity through a large thunderstorm complex
centered over the radar. Note the black triangular
area where there is no data over the radar. This is
the cone of silence.
(b)
Fig. 2.4: Examples of non-scanned areas
e. Concept of Radar’s Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF):

The Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF) refers to how often the radar emits energy
pulses. Suppose if it emits 318 pulses of energy per second, this means that it transmits only
0.000499 seconds out of each second, i.e., it listens much longer than it transmits. The
listening time between pulses determines the maximum range of the radar. The time it takes
for a pulse to travel out and back during the listening period determines the maximum range
24
of the radar. If we know the PRF and the speed of light, we can calculate maximum range.
Typical maximum range is around 400 km (250 nm).
f. Concept of Radar Volume scan:
Radar antenna (dish) rotates 360 degrees and scans several elevation slices depending
on the Volume Coverage Pattern (VCP) selected. There are two primary operating modes:
clear-air and precipitation mode.
i The Clear-Air Mode:

In this mode, the radar is in its most sensitive operation in which the radar antenna
rotates slower for allowing the radar to detect weaker signals (e.g., insects, smoke). Radar
can detect targets in the atmosphere even if there are no clouds. The slow antenna rotation
rate permits the radar to sample a given volume of the atmosphere longer. This increases
sampling and increases the radar's sensitivity and its ability to detect smaller objects in the
atmosphere as compared to precipitation mode. In clear air mode objects like airborne dust,
particulate matter, light snow etc. i.e. those do not reflect energy very well, can be detected.
In clear air mode, the radar products are also updated in every 10 minutes.
The clear-air mode allows more detail to be seen during snow situations. The additional
sensitivity of clear-air mode permits some echoes and intensities to be seen that otherwise
would be missed as seen in this example of a precipitation scan that was immediately
followed by a clear-air mode scan.
a. VCP 31 and 32-Antenna scans 5 elevation angles in 10 min., shown in Fig. 2.5
b. Typically used on days with no precipitation; can also be used for snow detection. .
Fig. 2.5: For Clear Air Mode-3.6
25
ii The Precipitation Mode:
The radar does not need to be as sensitive in precipitation mode as in clear air mode
because rain provides plenty of returning signals. In Precipitation Mode, the radar products
are updated every 6 minutes. Antenna rotates faster and samples more elevations to provide
more coverage in the vertical. There are three main volume scans i.e.VCP-21; VCP-11 and
VCP-12, briefed below and shown in Fig. 2.6:
 VCP 21 - Antenna scans 9 elevation slices in 6 minutes. Typically used for non-severe
precipitation.
 VCP 11 - Antenna scans 14 elevation slices in 5 minutes. Typically used for severe
thunderstorm detection and analysis. Most radar algorithms perform better in this mode
because there are fewer gaps between elevation slices providing higher resolution data.
 VCP 12 – Antenna scans 14 elevation slices in 4 minutes. Typically used for severe
thunderstorm detection and analysis. Most radar algorithms perform better in this mode
because there are fewer gaps between elevation slices providing higher resolution data.
(VCP-21) (VCP-11) (VCP-12)

Fig. 2.6: For Precipitation (Storm) Mode
Fig. 2.7: An example of comparison of Precipitation Mode vs. Clear Air Mode
26
Note: IMD presently operating all its radars in precipitation mode with the configuration of
two task (two types of volume scan) i.e. IMD-C and IMD-B. IMD-C has volume scan of three
elevation angles i.e. 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 degrees, gathering reflectivity data of 500km range
whereas IMD-B has volume scan of ten elevation angles i.e. 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.5, 6.0, 9.0,
12.0, 16.0, and 21.0 degree, gathering reflectivity, radial velocity and spectrum width data of
250km range. Both tasks are running continuously one after another, after completion of
each other. The total time set for completion of these two tasks is 10 min (IMD-C=1.59 min,
IMD-B=5.52 min and remaining time for repositioning the antenna to its initial position).
Hence in every 10 minutes interval all radar products are being updated continuously.
g. Concept of Cone of Silence appears in Radar Volume Scan:

The area directly above the radar site is not sampled (detected) because no radar
beams travel at a high enough angle from the radar to detect data and this un-sampled area is
called the Cone of Silence (Fig. 2.8). If a storm passes directly over the radar site, it will
seem to disappear in the radar image because the radar cannot detect the storm while it is
directly over head. Therefore, to overcome this problem we need to see the radar observation
of nearby radar sites.
Fig. 2.8: The Cone of silence indicated with yellow inverted arrow
27
h. Propagation of Radar Wave:
As radar energy (wave) travels through the atmosphere it does not propagate in a
straight line but is refracted by the atmosphere. The amount of deviation depends upon the
index of refraction of the atmosphere. The refractive index is a function of air temperature,
atmospheric pressure and the humidity. Standard propagation is defined in terms of the
standard atmosphere and represents the typical path taken by a radar beam. Fig. 2.9 shows the
propagation of radar beam relative to the Earth’s surface. It propagates downward as it moves
away from the radar, but at a rate less than the curvature of the Earth’s surface.
Fig. 2.9: Propagation of a radar beam.
If the radar beams bends less than the standard propagation path, the propagation is
referred to as sub refraction. If the radar beam bends more than the standard propagation
path, the propagation is called super refraction. Fig. 2.10(a) shows beam propagation from a
space perspective, but we to look at propagation from an Earth-relative viewpoint. Fig.
2.10(b) shows the elevation of the radar beam above the Earth’s surface as a function of
distance from the radar (range). A beam, initially oriented at 0º elevation, is some 11 or 12
thousand feet above the Earth’s surface at 240 km from the radar.
28
(a) (b)
Fig. 2.10: (a) Pictorial and (b) Geometrical view of radar beam height as a function of distance
from the radar
Note-1: The figure 2.10 is the pictorial view for the lowest elevation slice of 0.5° and it is not
totally horizontal. Earth’s curvature also plays a role and Radar beam gets higher off the
ground farther from the radar therefore it makes low level precipitation invisible to radar at
considerable distances
Refraction of Radar Beams
Fig. 2.11: Schematic of beam refraction. The approximate paths taken by radar beams being
refracted are shown
29
(a) Refraction (b) Sub refraction
(c) Super refraction (d) Ducting

Fig. 2.12: (a) Radar beam under refraction; (b) sub refraction; (c) super refraction &
(d) ducting condition of the atmosphere.
Note-2: If the decrease in density with height is more than normal, then the beam bends less
than normal and this is called sub refraction. In this case the beam might shoot over the
target and miss the precipitation. If the decrease in density with height is less than normal,
then the beam bends more than normal and this is called super-refraction. In this case the
beam bends more toward the surface of the Earth, and it may undershoot the target. If the
decrease in density with height is much less than normal, the beam may bend down to the
surface of the Earth in a process called ducting. If the beam is backscattered to the receiver,
it may results in Anomalous Propagation (AP) or “false echoes”. In the above figures 2.11
and 2.12 the bending of radar beam under the various atmospheric conditions are shown i.e.
(a) Normal refraction (b) Sub refraction (c) Super refraction (d) Ducting.
In extreme cases, the bending can be so great that the radar beam actually bends back
down to the surface and hits it, a term called “ducting”. When a radar beam hits the surface,
the energy from the beam reflects back towards the radar and causes reflectivity to appear.
Since, the conditions that cause this are usually uniform across the radar’s coverage area, the
30
reflectivity will appear as a uniform circle centred on the radar site with about the same
reflectivity value throughout (usually a low value) (Fig. 2.13).
Fig. 2.13: The Ducting effect clearly visible in the Base Reflectivity image
 Description of Figure 2.13:

Base reflectivity is shown in above figure 2.13; ducting of the radar beams is causing
the ground to reflect energy back towards the radar, giving the nearly uniform circle of
reflectivity centred over the site. No precipitation is occurring within this reflectivity, but
distant storms are apparent farther from the radar. Super-refraction is likely occurring with
the beams travelling further to the storms, so the heights of those storms are probably being
overestimated. Since there is such a thing as super-refraction, you may be asking if there is
such a thing as sub refraction. In fact, if the atmospheric conditions are such that the index of
refraction increases with height (the speed of light decreasing with height), then the radar
beam can be bent upward relative to where it would be normally, however sub refraction will
cause cloud and echo heights to be under calculated since the radar, doesn’t know that its
beams are being bent after they are emitted, will think the echoes are lower than they will
really be.
31
3.
RADAR ELEMENTS AND DISPLAYS
Manik Chandra & Kamaljit Ray,
I. Introduction:
One of the primary applications of radar is short term (0-4hr) weather forecasting, also
known as nowcasting. Since the range of radar is limited to few kilometres and weather
moves across it with an average speed of 40-50km/hour, it can see weather/echo a few hours
ahead. It has limited applications for the usual long term weather forecasts, but is extremely
useful to issue warnings when the severe weather develops rapidly in the vicinity and is
noticed in the radar. The measurement of the received energy and monitoring of various
characteristics of the received radiation, enable the determination of several characteristics of
the target. If the transmitter and receiver are located at two different points, the system is
known as bi-static radar. The more common arrangement, known as mono-static radar, is one
in which the transmitter and receiver are at the same site and usually share a common
antenna.
II. Display Products:

a. Plan Position Indicator (PPI):
This is the most common display of radar data. The radar antenna is usually represented in
the centre of the display, so that the distance from it and height above ground can be drawn in
concentric circles. The majority of radar images are of this type. For a given elevation angle
of the radar beam, the data is projected on to the ground plane. The data comes from close to
the ground at short ranges and from higher altitudes at longer ranges. Fig. 3.1a shows how
the height of the beam changes with distance. It is worth noting that many types of radar are
sited on high raise buildings or hilltops to avoid obstructions in immediate vicinity of the
radar. The height of the beam above ground may be greater than that shown in Fig. 3.1a.
32
(a) (b)
Fig. 3.1: (a) The variation in height and width of a radar beam with distance given an elevation
of 1.5⁰ and (b) a PPI Display
b. Constant Altitude Plan Position Indicator (CAPPI):

An alternative to a single PPI display is a Constant Altitude Plan Position Indicator
(CAPPI) display. It gives a horizontal cross-section of data at constant altitude. This is
constructed in a computer from a series of circular sweeps at different elevation angles, low
at long ranges and high at short ranges, so that the beam centres are all at nearly the same
altitude above the radar site level and the rate of rainfall at that altitude is displayed. The
CAPPI-V & CAPPI-RAIN products of DWR-Palam are shown in following Fig. 3.2.
Fig. 3.2: A Display of CAPPI Product of DWR Palam, New Delhi (CAPPI-V & CAPPI-Z)
c. Range–Height Indicator (RHI):

An RHI display is a vertical cut through the atmosphere, made by nodding (up and
down) the radar antenna at a specific azimuth. This form of display shows the vertical extent
33
of precipitation elements within a cloud system and of certain micro-physical processes
associated with them. The vertical pattern of reflectivity can also be used to classify rainfall
events into strati-form, convective or severe storm types. The RHI product of DWR-Palam is
shown in following Fig. 3.3.
In RHI mode the antenna is

positioned in one azimuth angle and
scanned vertically up and down to get
the vertical cross-section of a cloud
echo. This gives us an idea of the
height of cloud, any wind shear
influencing it etc in one look. It also
helps us to identify the eye of a
cyclone when scanned through the
cyclone centre.
Fig. 3.3: RHI display of WSR-98 D/S Doppler Weather Radar
d. MAX(Maximum Display):
MAX product shows the maximum echoes on each pixel between user selected heights.
e. Echo Tops:
Echo Tops product shows tops height (in kms) at the user selected threshold. It is a good
indicator of Hail and severe weather.
f. VVP(Velocity Volume Processing)/VAD(Velocity Azimuth Display):
In VVP product, wind speed and direction is plotted as a function of height.
g. SRI(Surface rainfall Intensity):
This product shows the rainfall intensities based on Z-R relation.
h. VIL(Vertically Integrated Liquid):
Vertically integrated liquid (VIL) is an estimate of the total mass of precipitation in the
clouds. It is an excellent indicator of severe storm activity, especially with regard to the
rainfall potential of a system. The output shows the estimated precipitation contained within a
user defined layer. If the layer height is above the freezing level, high VIL values are an
excellent indicator of severe storm and hail.
34
III. Radar Parameters:
The Doppler Weather Radar initially generates following types of base data:
a. Reflectivity
b. Radial velocity
c. Spectrum width
d. Differential Reflectivity
e. Warning Products
a. Reflectivity:
Echo intensity (reflectivity) is measured in scale of dBZ. Reflectivity is the amount of
transmitted power returned to the radar. The base reflectivity is essentially “raw” data usually
seen from the lowest tilt angle, 0.50 degree, for example PPI-Z (Reflectivity) product is the
Base Reflectivity. The Base Reflectivity Products are able to detect precipitation, evaluate
storm structure, locate atmospheric boundaries and determine hail potential. The Several
different elevation angles (tilts) of the radar can be used for composite reflectivity products,
for example the CAPPI-Z and MAX-Z are the Composite Reflectivity products. The colours
are the different echo intensities (reflectivity) measured in dBZ (decibels of Z). dBZ is also
related to the number of drops per unit volume and the sixth power of their diameter i.e.
Z(Radar Reflectivity Factor)= ΣDi6 (mm6/m3)
where, D is the drop diameter(mm) and the summation is over the total number of drops (of
varying sizes) within a unit volume(m3) within the beam.
By using above relation, the dimensionless quantity dBZ can be calculated as:
dBZ=10log10Z/Z0
where, Z0 is the reflectivity factor of a 1 mm drop in a volume of a meter cube.
The dBZ values increase as the strength of the signal returned to the radar increases.
Very Light rain will have dBZ values around 20dBZ with more intense thunderstorms having
values of 50 dBZ or more. In the following Fig. 3.4 some reflectivity product of DWR
(Palam) New Delhi are shown.
35
(a) PPI-Z (b) CAPPI-Z (c) MAX-Z
Fig. 3.4: Reflectivity Products of WSR 98-D/S Doppler Weather Radar, IGI Airport (Palam)
New Delhi.
i Rainfall Rate: Radar’s ability to scan showers and thunderstorms over a large areas, is
utilized for indirect measurements of rainfall rate. The reflectivity factor is related to the size
of the precipitation particles in the radar echo as already discussed. If we assume that our
radar echo has known distribution of precipitation particles i.e. number of drops of different
sizes categories, we can relate the reflectivity factor (Z) to the rainfall rate as:
Z=ARb
where A and b are constants determined by the assumed drop size distribution.
This relation is also known as ‘Z-R Relation’. Since the value of A & b are specific to radar
site configuration, many researchers have produced a large variety of values of A & b. Out of
these, the most common Z-R relations are:
Z=200R1.6, for strati form rain {Marshall and Palmer(1948)}
1.71
Z=31R , for orographic rain {Blanchard, 1953)
Z=500R1.5, for thunderstorm (Joss, 1970)
Z=350R1.4, for convective rain
Z=2000R2, for snow (Marshall and Gunn, 1958)
b. Radial Velocity:
Doppler weather radars also measure velocity of the target. They not only detect & measure
the power/energy received from the target, but also, measure the motion of the target towards
or away from the radar. This is called radial velocity. It is determined from Doppler
frequency shifting of the target due to its movement.
i. Speed Shear Wind Patterns: To understand Doppler radial velocity patterns, one first has
to consider the geometry of a radar scan. Normally the radar beam is pointed at an elevation
36
angle greater than zero so that the beam, as it moves away from the radar, moves higher and
higher above the surface of the earth as shown in following Fig. 3.5. Therefore, due to this
radar beam geometry, radar returns originating from targets near the radar represent the low-
level wind field, while returns from distant targets represent the wind field at higher levels.
On a radar PPI display, the distance away from

the radar at the center of the display represents
both a change in horizontal distance and a
change in vertical distance. To determine the
wind field at a particular elevation above the
radar, one must examine the radial velocities on
a ring at a fixed distance from the radar. The
exact elevation represented by a particular ring
depends upon the elevation angle of the radar
beam.
Fig. 3.5: Radar beam Geometry
In examples (from Fig. 3.6 a to d) idealized Doppler radial velocity patterns were
constructed with a computer assuming simple vertical wind field patterns. These simplified
radial velocity patterns can help in to understand more complicated patterns that are
associated with storm motions. Doppler velocity patterns (right) correspond to vertical wind
profiles (left), where the wind barbs indicate wind speed and direction from the ground up to
24,000 feet. Negative Doppler velocities (blue-green) are towards the radar and positive
(yellow-red) are away from radar. The radar location is at the center of the display.
For this first example, wind is constant with height,

but wind speed increases from 20 knots at the ground
to 40 knots at 24,000 feet. Note on the velocity field
the maximum inbound velocity is to the west and
maximum outbound is to the east while to the north
and south the radar measures zero radial velocity. This
is because the winds are perpendicular to the radar
beam when viewed to the north or south.
3.6 (a)
37
In the second example, the winds increase from 20
to 40 knots between zero and 12,000 feet and then
decrease again to 20 knots at 24,000 feet. The wind
direction again is constant. The radar beam
intersects the 12,000 foot level along a ring half-
way across the radar display. This is where we see
the maximum inbound and outbound velocities.
(b)
In the third example, we see a wind field which
changes direction from north to south but has a
constant speed at all heights. The zero radial
velocity line now bends so that it is everywhere
perpendicular to the wind field. The maximum
radial velocities are observed where the radar beam
points directly toward or way from the wind
direction.
(c)
In this fourth example, there is the same effect but in

this case, hence the flow is confluent instead of
diffluent.
(d)
Fig. 3.6 a, b, c & d: Doppler Radial Velocity patterns
ii. PPI-V Product:

The PPI-V product indicates some significant information about the local wind field
pattern up to the range of 50 to 70 km only, in absence of clouds. It may be clear here that the
Doppler radars are reporting the radial wind, not actual winds. The radial wind is the
component of wind seen by the antenna when facing it. If the angle between the actual wind
and the antenna position is  and wind speed is V then radial wind Vr is computed as:
Vr = V cos 
 When wind and the antenna are in the same direction  will be zero and the radial will
be equal to actual wind (Vr = V).
38
 When wind and the antenna are in the opposite direction (facing each other) the  will
be 180 degrees and Vr = -V.
 When wind and the antenna are perpendicular to each other then  will be is 90
degrees and Vr = 0.
Fig 3.7: Radial Velocity for different orientation of wind and radar, if the target is
moving perpendicular to the radar, the radar will record zero radial velocity of the
target.
iii. The VVP-2 Product:

The VVP-2 product (Velocity images) of radar provides a picture of the basic wind
field in the area surrounding 30 km and up to the height from the surface to the height of 7.5
km or user selectable, with respect to the radar station. Velocity images are useful for
determining areas of strong wind from downbursts or detecting the speed of cold fronts. The
VVP-2 product of DWR-Palam is shown in Fig. 3.8.
Fig. 3.8: VVP-2 product of DWR-Palam
39
c. Spectrum Width:
Spectrum width depicts velocity dispersion. It provides a measure of the variability of
mean radial velocity estimates (movement) due to wind shear, turbulence and/or quality of
velocity samples. One pixel on radar represents a volume within which there can be literally
millions of individual hydrometeors. Each individual hydrometeor will have its own speed &
direction of movement. The radar averages the individual velocities to produce a single
average radial velocity that is displayed for that pixel. Spectrum width is basically the
standard deviation of the velocity distribution within a single pixel. The Doppler weather
radars are having the capabilities to detect and display turbulence in the form of Spectrum
width products, particularly convective activity. The areas of turbulence in the clear air
situation can be pre cursors for convective developments. In strati-form cloud, areas of
higher spectral width indicate the presence of embedded thunder clouds. This spectrum width
is based on the Doppler Effect and is sensitive to precipitation movement. The spectrum
width function needs a minimum amount of precipitation to be effective. To help make safe
flight path decisions, and especially when the weather ahead is represented as dense, the
spectrum width products is useful to detect turbulence (Example Fig: 3.9).
An area of light rainfall, depicted in green in normal

mode, is shown in red or pink when there is high
turbulence activity within the system.
The spectrum width products are only much
effective within a range of 40 NM (Doppler
measurement capability) and can only be used in
wet weather.
Note: Clear air turbulence and dry turbulence
cannot be detected by the weather radar.
Fig. 3.9: DWR-Palam radar Spectrum Width Product 25th April, 2011 (1700UTC)
d. Differential Reflectivity:
This data is produced by polarimetric radars. In general, weather radars send and receive
microwaves at one polarization, usually horizontal, because raindrops are usually oblate. By
transmitting or receiving radar waves at more than one polarization, additional information
can be obtained on the nature of the target. Differential reflectivity is a ratio of the reflected
horizontal and vertical power returns. It is a good indicator of drop shape which in return, is a
40
good estimate of average drop size. The signals that are received from each polarization
channel are averaged separately and radar reflectivity factors are determined from each,
giving ZH & ZV.
The reflectivity depolarization ratio is defined as:
ZDR=10 log10 (ZH/ZV) (decibel)
where ZH & ZV are the linear radar reflectivity factors at horizontal & vertical polarization
respectively.
e. Warning Products:
Warning products are used for detecting significant weather e.g. the occurrence of 45dBZ at
1.5km above the freezing level is a good indicator of hail in many mid-latitude locations.
Suppose the freezing level is at 4km, & you run an Echo Tops product for the 45dBZ
contour. If the Echo Tops product shows 45 dBZ tops at height greater than 5.5km there is a
high probability of hail.
Some examples of warning criteria are:
i Hail Detection: 45dBZ Echo Tops at 1.5km above freezing level over an area of 10km2
ii Wind Shear Detection: Wind shear greater than 10m/s/km at 0.5⁰ and 0.7⁰ EL over an
area of 3km2.
iii Storm Turbulence Detection: Spectrum width greater than 6m/s and reflectivity greater
than 20dBZ over an area of 10km2.
iv Precipitation Surveillance Detection: VIL greater than 1mm within height 1.5 to 14km,
over an area of 25km2.
v. Flash Flood Warning: Hourly rainfall > 5mm over an area of 25km2.
-------
41
4.
CLASSIFICATION OF WEATHER RADAR ECHOES
Manik Chandra & S.C. Bhan
I. Introduction:
In order to derive maximum information from echoes shown in a radar image, it is
essential to interpret them properly. The clouds consisting of water drops or ice particles
smaller than 100 microns are not generally detected by the X, C, S, band radars. Ice clouds in
which particle size are equivalent to drop diameter of about 100 microns may be detected by
X-band radars only. Therefore only those low or medium clouds can be detected by
meteorological radars which have drop diameters more than 100 microns. The meteorological
radars can detect medium and large scale weather phenomena like thunderstorm, squall lines,
winter cyclone, monsoon depressions, cyclonic storm, violent storms like tornado, Nor-
westers etc. The pattern of precipitation associated with these phenomena, character of the
echo, its size, intensity (reflectivity), and movement can provide useful and vital information
to the forecaster for guidance in issuing warnings and forecasting of weather.
II. Classification of Weather (Meteorological) Radar Echoes:
A. Based on Characteristic of Echoes:
It is better to easy understand the distinctive weather radar echoes classified in
accordance with their characteristics like shape, size, appearance etc. These may be further
broadly divided as given in following Table 4.1
Table 4.1: Classification of Radar Echoes based on their characteristics
Based on types of Based on Based on types of Based on some other
clouds Clouds internal Protuberances specific weather
structure phenomenon
Convective cloud echoes Dry hole Hook shaped Bright band
Stratiform cloud echoes Shear U-shaped Debris ball
Spiral band Scalloped edges on Tornado Vortex Signature
back side of storm (TVS)
Finger shaped Bounded Weak Echo Region
Pendent shaped
Bow shaped
Squall line shaped
Thin lines of red
42
(i) Description of Echoes based on Type of Clouds:
a. Convective Echoes: In the classification of echoes, the first thing is to decide whether it
is of convective or stratiform type echo. Of course, these are broad line cases in which it
might become difficult to reach a decision. Further there are occasions when echoes are
simultaneously convective at one level and stratiform at another level in the atmosphere.
However, for the purpose of classification, it is preferable to give a clear-cut example which
illustrates the difference between the two and serves to provide material for further
identification and classification. The convective type of echoes seen in the radar images, {in
Fig. 4.1 (a) and (b)} have the following characteristics:
 On the PPI Images, they are circular or oval shaped echoes of reflectivity smaller sizes
with clear-cut and sharply defined edges. Each echo may be a single convective cell or a
group of closely-packed cells. On the RHI Images, convective type of echoes appears as
tall narrow columns. They are quite bright in intensity & can be detected even on long
ranges due to their great vertical extent and high intensity. They do not exhibit any Bright
Band except sometimes in their decaying stage.
 Convective echoes show iso-echo counter. High water content and updrafts are responsible
for turbulence within such echoes. Therefore, the brighter portions of an echo will denote
regions of severe turbulence.
 Extraordinary brightness in a convective cell is indicative of the presence of hail. Blurring
of the edges of a convective type echo is the first indication of the beginning of the decay
of the cell. On reduction of receiver gain, the reduction in the size of a convective echo is
comparatively less than that of a stratiform echo.
(a) Echoes seen on Conventional Radar (b) Echoes of DWR Display of MAX-Z on 13 Apr
Display of PPI & RHI 2006 (1122 UTC) of DWR Visakhapatnam
and 12th Jul 2010 (1250 UTC) of DWR Palam
Fig. 4.1: (a) & (b) Convective type echoes of Conventional Weather Radar & DWR
43
b. Stratiform Echoes: Typical example of stratiform type echoes can be seen in Fig. 4.2 (a)
and (b).
Some of their characteristics are given below:
 On PPI Image, they are rather large in size and appear more as echo “patches” rather than
echo “cells”. They are diffused and ill-defined. On RHI Image, the height-to-width ratio is
small for stratiform echoes. The echoes do not show large vertical development. They are
more or less of uniform intensity and are much less bright than convective type of echoes.
Due to their limited vertical extent and low intensity, they cannot be detected at a long
ranges. Due to weak nature of the stratiform echo, even a small amount of intervening
precipitation is sufficient to mask the echo. They very often exhibit bright band.
 Generally they do not exhibit any iso-echo contours. They are associated with stable type
of weather phenomena. There is almost no turbulence associated with stratiform echo.
 For the same reduction of receiver gain, the reduction in the size of stratiform echo is
much larger than the reduction in size of a convective echo. An echo which begins as a
convective cell may, in the final stage of its decay, completely degenerate into a stratiform
type of echo.
(a) (b)
Fig. 4.2: Stratiform cloud echoes: (a). PPI Reflectivity & (b). RHI Reflectivity images
(ii) Description of Echoes based on Internal Cloud Structure:
a. Dry holes: Sometimes, a very peculiar phenomenon is observed in which small areas, with
apparently no precipitation, are found embedded in very large and extensive areas of heavy
44
precipitation. These are known as “Dry Holes” and are not to be confused with the black
areas appearing in the convective echo on the application of iso-echo contouring device.
The “Dry Holes” are thought to be areas of no precipitation because the radar beam is (as can
be seen in Fig. 4.3 & 4.4) strong enough to penetrate many more miles beyond these Dry
Holes and give detectable echo. The important question is , why should there be few dry
areas of the order of a square km or even less in a large extensive and heavily precipitating
are of a few thousand km or more? A suitable physical explanation for this phenomenon is
not yet available, but in U.S.A. these are found to be associated with tornadoes and
sometimes with hail. In India, they have so far not been found to be associated with
tornadoes. There is also no evidence so far to show that these are associated with hail. The
only conclusive point about their occurrence in India is that these are associated with severe
storm in which precipitation rate is high and surface winds are strong. The occurrence of
“Dry Holes” in extensive precipitation echoes can be taken as a positive evidence of the fact
that the storm is going to develop into a severe one.
Fig.4.3: Dry Hole
Dry Hole
Fig.4.4: Formation of Dry Hole
45
Fig. 4.3 & 4.4 above led to the recognition of the cloud mass as a mesoscale cyclone
in the middle troposphere from the radar information. Two echo peaks rotated about the
cyclone centre at a rate of 1 radian per 50 min. with interspersed clear areas. This information
suggests that a two-wave system was superimposed on the mesoscale cyclone and that it give
rise to the hole when an area of descent passed over the eastern edge of the whole cloud
mass, possibly also drawing in drier air from its outside.
b. Wind Shear: When precipitation shows showery characteristics, cells may be seen on RHI
images as separate columns of falling rain or snow. These columns often get bent vertically
due to wind shear {Fig. 4.5 (a)}; examples may be seen in Fig.4.5 (b) to (g). To understand
the mechanism of the phenomena we may consider that the precipitation originates at a
higher level in the atmosphere. As the snow flacks or raindrops fall to a lower level with
different wind speed and direction, the drops are deflected laterally by the shearing wind.
Because of the differences in wind speeds at the two levels, which may be large compared to
fall velocities, the slope of precipitation column may be very steep, particularly with snow
where the fall velocities may be only a few cm per second.
To observe the shear effect clearly, the radar must be pointed such that the antenna
scans in the same vertical plane as that of the wind shear. In such cases, it may even possible
to estimate the distribution of winds aloft from the RHI pattern when the radar antenna is not
pointing in the plane of the wind shear. When looking cross-wind, the radar beam intercepts
only that portion of a sloping shower which falls along the particular azimuth being scanned,
giving the appearance of the component of the shower aloft in that particular azimuth.
From a study of the relation of wind shear and cloud shear, it is found that, in general, the
radar cloud shear in mature thunderstorms and shower is about 50% to 70% of the wind
shear.
46
(a) A model of Shear
(b) Shear from Conventional Radar (c) Azimuth Shear (d) Elevation Shear
(e) EW Shear (f) Radial Shear (g) 3D-Shear

Fig. 4.5: (a) Model of Shear, (b) Wind shear images of Conventional Radar & (c to g) Doppler
Weather Radar products generated for various types of shear (DWR-PALAM)
47
c. Spiral Bands: Sometimes echoes are observed from the centre of spiral bands. These
spiral bands can be fitted with a logarithmic spiral of the equation:
log r = A + B θ
where r is the radial distance from the centre of the storm, θ is the angle between the radius
and an assumed axis and A and B are constants. The constant A is empirical and B is given
by B = tan α, Where α is the crossing angle between a band and any intersecting circle having
the same centre as the spiral. Spirals with crossing angle of 10, 15, and 20 degree shown in
Fig. 4.6 (a), (b) and (c) respectively, have been used to estimate the centre of the storm by
properly aligning these spirals with the precipitation spiral bands in a cyclonic storm. A
typical example of such an echo pattern over the Bay of Bengal near Kolkata is shown in Fig.
4.7 (a) & (b). The spiral echo pattern is quite obvious and prominent in the most of the
revolving storms in ocean areas and can be seen for long periods of time. In other revolving
storms, the echo pattern is not so distinct, especially after the storm has had an overland
trajectory. The spiral band structure is occasionally seen to occur in the summer
thunderstorms and monsoon depression.
(a) Spiral with 10 degree (b) Spiral with 15 degree ( c) Spiral with 20 degree
crossing angle crossing angle crossing angle
Fig. 4.6 (a to c) Spiral used for interpretation of Cyclone crossing angles
48
(a) (b)
Fig. 4.7: Various images of Cyclone {Conventional (a) and Doppler Radar (b)}
(iii) Description of Echoes based on types of Protuberances (Shapes):

In the interpretation of Doppler Radar Products the shapes are more important than colours,
therefore, these should be observed carefully in order to detect adverse weather conditions.
Closely spaced areas of different colours usually indicate highly turbulent zones (Fig. 4.8).
The echoes of weather radar from which hooks extend, are generally intense and the hooks
themselves show high intensity as well. Typically pictures may be seen in Fig. 4.9 (a to d)
and 4.10 (a to d). The hooks usually (but not necessarily) appear on the upwind and right
hand side of an echo i.e. southwest portion of an echo moving east. Such hooks may be
masked by weather echoes at high gain. It is therefore, necessary to observe the echo
periodically at low gain. Further, are at higher antenna elevation but not at zero degree.
These protuberances may look like Bow, Hooks or Comma, Line or appendages,
jutting out of very intense convective echo. These should always be taken as indicative of hail
and other severe weather phenomena. The occurrence of an appendage is most significant
when detected at lower elevations. The closer the elevation angle is to 0 degree, the more
representative will the radar observation be of the surface conditions, such as hail on the
ground. This criterion, when used alone, must be used with caution. However, when an echo
possesses a clearly defined “6” shaped appendage, with dimensions of 10 to 20 km, and
satisfies several other criteria for severity, it is very likely to be a tornado aloft, if not on the
ground.
The Weather radar echo shapes of a storm can indicate the severity of turbulence and
precipitation, therefore the knowledge of hazardous shapes is helpful to issue severe weather
49
warnings. Fast changing shapes, whatever form they take, also indicate high weather activity.
However some Hazardous storm shapes are discussed on next page.
Fig. 4.8: Closely Spaced Areas of Different Colours
a. Hook Shape Echoes: These are indicative of a tornado, and are most likely to occur in
thunderstorms with a marked horizontal wind shear in the middle levels of the cloud. Any
return from a tornado will be weak, as they contain little moisture. These are commonly
found in a single thunderstorm, in which the reflectivity image resembles with a shape of
hook. When this occurs, the thunderstorm is producing a circulation and possibly a tornado.
The rain gets wrapped around this circulation in the shape of a hook. Please see Fig. 4.9 (a to
d) & 4.10 (a to d), in this image, a thunderstorm with a hook echo moves across the radar
region.
b. “U” Shape Echoes: These indicate strong updrafts bounded on three sides by heavy
precipitation which is associated with likely downdrafts. Penetration here could risk vertical
shear that exceeds the structural integrity of the aircraft.
c. Scalloped edges on back side of Storm: These are indicative of severe attenuation of the
radar energy due to extremely heavy precipitation. True extent of turbulence and storm size is
not being displayed.
d. Fingers Shape Echoes: Another sign of a severe thunderstorm. Generally the more
contorted the shape of a return, the greater the risk. Sharp contours are likely indicating a
growing storm, while fuzzy contour edges often indicate a storm in the dissipating stage (all
downdrafts).
50
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig. 4.9: Typical Shapes of hook echoes
(a) (b) (c) (d)

Fig. 4.10: Shapes of radar echoes indicating Adverse Weather
e. Pendant Shaped Echo Storms: If displaying all levels of precipitation, this is indicative
of a “leaning (steady -state) thunderstorm”, also called a “shear thunderstorm”. It is a
variation of any other type of thunderstorm, but is most common at cold fronts and in squall
lines. They may contain cricket ball size hail. They are considered the most deadly type of
thunderstorm.
f. Bow Echo: Bow echoes are clusters of thunderstorms that resemble with the shapes of
bow, where the centre of the line extends past the two ends of the line. This bow shape is a
result of strong winds in the upper levels of the atmosphere that often mix down to the
surface, for example see Fig. 4.11(a).
g. Squall Line: An organized line of thunderstorms is known as squall line. These are
common during the spring and are usually triggered along cold fronts. For example, see Fig.
4.11 (b). In this picture, a squall line slices across southern side ahead of a cold front.
51
(a) (b) (c) (d)
Fig 4.11: Typical evolution of a thunderstorm radar echo with their shape: (a) Bow Echo (b)
Squall Line Echo (c) & (d) A development process of an echo into bow and comma shaped
echoes
The dashed line indicates axis of greatest potential for downbursts and arrows indicate wind
flow relative to the storm. It may be noted, regions of cyclonic ‘c’ and anticyclonic rotation
‘a’ both are related with occurrence of severe weather. Especially ‘c’ are capable of
supporting tornado development and in some cases ‘a’.
h. Thin Lines of Red: Often seen connecting two large strong returns bowing out on the
back side. This indicates that a massively powerful thunderstorm may lurk in the black and
apparently benign area behind the thin line of red. Radar energy is being attenuated
(weakened) so badly that it cannot get back to the receiver to advise you of the real danger.
The area behind the red, being black and showing no return is called a “Radar Shadow” (Fig.
4.12). A radar shadow can result from an attenuated signal from a nearby storm, masking a
larger and more dangerous storm behind (Fig. 4.13). One may not be aware of the storm
behind until you clear the first, and are about to penetrate the second. By such time evasive
action may not be possible.
Fig. 4.12: Radar Shadow–danger
52
Fig. 4.13 Radar shadow masks lethal storm behind nearest storm.
(iv) Description of Echoes based on presence of Specific Atmospheric Conditions:
a. Bright Band: A bright band is associated with stratiform type of echoes and can be seen
on RHI/MAX-Z images. It is found to occur in the vicinity of the 0˚C isotherm. A typical
bright band within a stratiform echo can be seen in Fig. 4.14 (a) & (b), the bright band forms
in the region of melting snow, a few hundred meters below the melting level. A well-defined
bright band can be seen only under stable conditions of the atmosphere when the up currents
are either uniform or weak. It is therefore, a good indicator of the presence of stability in the
atmosphere. Knowledge of the altitude of 0˚C isotherm is may be used by pilots to avoid
icing conditions. The presence of bright band gives the altitude of 0˚C isotherm with a
reasonable accuracy. This method of estimating the altitude of 0˚C isotherm can be useful
over ocean areas and in the regions where the radiosonde network is not established.
Bright banding is a region of intense reflectivity found in an area where frozen precipitation
is likely occurring or it may also indicate the boundary between frozen and liquid
precipitation. The high reflectivity is not an indication of very heavy precipitation falling, but
it is an indication of liquid coating on frozen precipitation. Liquid water reflects microwave
energy much better than does frozen water. At the boundary between frozen and liquid
precipitation, there will be a mix of both phases of water. The liquid coating on the frozen
particles will make the particles appear much larger to the radar due to reflecting much more
53
energy. Therefore, the reflectivity will be much higher where this is occurring. The difference
in reflective abilities of liquid and frozen water enables an observer of radar to determine
where frozen and liquid precipitation is occurring. Frozen precipitation will appear much
smoother, with very small reflectivity gradients and overall lower reflectivity than liquid
precipitation, which will appear coarser with higher gradients and higher reflectivity. The
highest reflectivity values are typically associated with either hail or a mixture of water and
ice. The most likely place to find the water-ice mixture is just below the freezing level in
clouds where falling snow is melting. If there is cloud layer completely around the radar
site, the radar often shows a circular band of higher intensity return associated with this
water-ice mixture. This band is referred to as a bright band. The top of this band should
be at or near the freezing level. The bright band is best seen in a cross-section.
(a) (b)
Fig. 4.14 (a) & (b): The MAX-Z Product, the SN panel is showing bright band around 4km
above ground level
Note-1: The same concept is also applicable to explain why hail appears as very high values
of reflectivity on radar. In fact, reflectivity values above 60 dBZ are usually an indication of
hails, or a mixture of heavy rain and hail. Reflectivity values greater than 70 dBZ likely
indicate large hail. Hail grows by collecting liquid water on the surface of an already
existing hail stone. The liquid water then freezes and adds a layer to the stone. The liquid
water coating the hail stone reflects a very large amount of energy emitted by radar and
results in very high values of reflectivity showing up on radar.
54
Note-2: Bright bands are the enhanced (bright), concentric rings visible on radar images
{figure 4.14(a) &(b)} produced by scanning the antenna in a cone and picking-up higher
echoes related with melting snow at altitude below zero degree Wet-bulb temperature.
b. Debris Ball: A debris ball is also known as a Tornadic Debris Signature (TDS), is an area
of high reflectivity on weather radar images caused by large debris being lofted into the air,
usually associated with a tornado or tornado vortex signature (TVS). Research results on
debris balls show that horizontal reflectivity from debris balls range from 51 to 72 dBZ.
Reflectivity values also decrease with increasing height. Due to the irregular, variable size,
and tumbling nature of tornadic debris, debris balls typically produce a correlation coefficient
(ρhv) less than 0.80. Differential reflectivity (Zdr) values associated with debris balls are
normally near or below 0 dB. Debris balls are always associated with a strong TVS. A debris
ball is a radar signature that "implies" that tornado has destroyed something and is lofting the
debris in the air. This requires more attention and continuous watch during development of
severe weather. It should be watched and noticed properly about formation of the "hook"
shaped echo and its notch to know the position that where the tornado will form (southwest
edge of the storm). Since a tornado has the ability to pick up some big things, therefore
sometimes the presence of debris balls can be seen nicely which means that there is a very
strong indication of tornadoes. Debris balls can be a result of anthropogenic or biomass
debris and are highly probable after a tornado crosses a dense forest or city. As a result of the
strong winds required to damage structures and loft debris into the air. The debris balls are
normally the result of stronger tornadoes. Weaker tornadoes may also not contribute to debris
balls due to their short–lived period, and thus any debris may not be sampled by radar.
However, not all tornadoes meeting such strength requirements to exhibit debris balls,
depending on their vicinity near structures. A debris ball on radar images can verify
tornadoes 70–80% of the time. Debris balls are seen on radar reflectivity images as a small,
round area of high reflectivity values. In the following Fig. 4.15, the radar images show a
well-defined debris ball, which is an indication of Tornado, the area of high reflectivity just
to the right of debris lofted into the air by the tornado.
55
Fig. 4.15: Radar images of the super cell that produced the Base reflectivity is on the left and
storm relative velocity on the right. The area of high reflectivity is just to the right side of debris
lofted into the air by the tornado.
Some examples of Debris Balls {Fig. 4.16 (a), (b), & (c)}:
Let's start to look at how storms look on radar and how to identify a debris ball.
The image is the super cell that tragically did so much

damage to the area. One can see the body of the storm and
the hook on the southwest side of the storm. The hook
appears because the storm is rotating so fast that it pulls
rain around the dry side of the storm and wraps it around
the rotating updraft (where the tornado could form). Legit
hooks only show up on rotating storms.
4.16 (a)
56
In the previous image, there are no bright colours in
the hook, so there is no debris ball. Keep in mind, we
are simply trying to identify if a debris ball is present.
As the storm moved, it was being watched closely to
see if a debris ball would form knowing that it would
indicate a very high likelihood of a strong to violent
tornado. A purple coloured spot can be seen in the
centre of the hook as the storms moved. This is a
debris ball showing up on radar.
(b)
(c)
Fig 4.16 (a), (b) & (c): Images showing normal & close-up view of the debris ball
c. Tornado Vortex Signature: Before development of the technology of Doppler radar, the
echo pattern was an indicator of a possible tornado and meteorologists warned the public of
possibilities of tornadoes based on hook echoes as seen in their monitor. Typically, a severe
thunderstorm, with >55 dBZ precipitation at its centre, will be moving rapidly. Conventional
radar cannot see the actual tornado, but apparently can see the parent tornado cyclone which
spawns the smaller tornado. Thus, at the vertex of the well-defined hook, there is usually
greater than a 75% chance that a funnel or tornado cloud could be spotted. Please note that
the tornado hook occurs as much as 10 miles away from the heavy rain and hail. Tornadoes
most often occur on the edge of a severe thunderstorm, not deep within its core. Useful as
hook echoes are, only about 20% of tornadoes actually produce a hook-like signature on
radar. Modern Doppler Weather Radars can map the actual tornado cyclone, and even
sometimes the tornado vortex winds, greatly improving warning reliability.
57
Fig. 4.17: A model of Hook echo showing features of TVS and some tornado pictures
A tornado vortex signature or tornadic vortex signature, abbreviated TVS, is a

Doppler weather radar detected rotation algorithm that indicates the likely presence of a
strong mesocyclone that is in some stage of tornado genesis (Fig. 4.17). It may give
meteorologists the ability to pinpoint and track the location of tornadic rotation within a
larger storm. TVS-Product of DWR (Fig. 4.18) indicates about the place where wind
directions are changing, known as shear within a small area and there is rotation. There is
also a strong possibility that a tornado will form in that area. The forecaster could issue a
tornado warning based on radar signature.
It is often visible on the Doppler radar storm relative velocity product as side by side inbound
and outbound velocities, a signature known as a velocity couplet or "gate-to-gate" shear.
Tornado signature
In bound
velocities Out bound
velocities
Fig. 4.18: Tornado signature in PPI-V radar image
A TVS can be measured by gate to gate wind shear, which is the change of wind
speed and direction across the two gates of inbound and outbound velocities. Gates are the
individual pixels on the radar display. For example, if the inbound velocity is −48 knots
58
(−88.9 km/h) knots and the outbound is 39 knots (72 km/h), then there is 87
knots(48+39=87) (161 km/h) of gate to gate shear.
In many cases, the TVS is a strong mesocyclone aloft, not an actual tornado, although the
presence of an actual tornado on the ground can occasionally be inferred based on a strong
couplet in concerned with a debris cloud signature, or through confirmation from storm
spotters.
d. Bounded Weak Echo Region (BWER): This feature is associated with a strong updraft
and is almost always found in the inflow region of a thunderstorm. It cannot be seen visually.
The BWER has been noted on radar imagery of severe thunderstorms since 1973 and has a
lightning detection system equivalent known as a lightning hole. The bounded weak echo
region, also known as a BWER or a vault, is a radar signature within a thunderstorm
characterized by a local minimum in radar reflectivity at low levels which extends upward
and is surrounded by higher reflectivity aloft. The BWER is related to the strong updraft in a
severe convective storm that carries newly formed atmospheric particulates, called
hydrometeors, to high levels before they can grow to radar-detectable sizes.
The BWER is a nearly vertical channel of weak radar echo, surrounded on the sides
and top by significantly stronger echoes. BWERs are typically found at midlevel of
convective storms, 3 kilometres to 10 kilometres above the ground, and are a few kilometres
in horizontal diameter. Identifying the location of the updraft region is important because it is
linked to locations where severe weather normally occurs. The presence of a BWER has been
part of a method to diagnose thunderstorm strength as part of the Lemon technique since
1977. The updraft strength within the BWER supports the growth of large hailstones just
above the vault, which can be displaced slightly into the direction of motion of the parent
super cell storm. The bounded weak echo region (BWER) is a region of low radar reflectivity
bounded above by an area of higher radar reflectivity which shows evidence of a strong
updraft within mesocyclones. Radar analysts have recognized this phenomenon since at least
1973, using different elevation scans. A BWER associated with a mesocyclone, can be
confirmed by the interpretation of Doppler weather radar’s precipitation velocity products.
A cross-section of the three-dimensional reflectivity of a thunderstorm shows the vault better.
The development of a pronounced BWER can lead to tropical cyclone-like radar signatures
over land when located with a low angle plan position indicator (PPI). When using the
lightning detection system, lightning holes (uncovered in 2004) correspond to where a
BWER would be seen on radar {Fig. 4.19 (a), (b) and (c)}.
59
Radial velocity patterns observed in a RHI A cursor cross has been placed in the echo
.
scan through a Bounded Weak Echo Region hole associated with the BWER
(BWER) in a hail-producing thunderstorm.
(a) (b)
BWER
The outer yellow-shaded translucent region depicts reflectivity levels between 39

and 48 dBZ. This reflectivity surface shows the BWER overhang on the
southeast side of the storm. The interior red-shaded region contains reflectivity
values at and above 61 dBZ.
(c)
Fig. 4.19 (a), (b) & (c): Bounded weak echo regions
B. Classification based on Seasons:

The classification of weather radar echoes based on seasons is being discussed here. In
general, if we consider the span of a year, over the country following significant weather
patterns are prevailing with respect to various seasons in following Table 4.2
60
Table 4.2 Season wise classification of radar echoes
Winter season Pre-monsoon season Southwest Monsoon Post-monsoon season
(Dec. to Feb.) (March to June) (June to Sep.) (Oct. to Nov.)
Echoes associated Andhis (NW-India) Steady rainfall Cyclonic storms in the
with cold fronts Bay of Bengal and
Arabian Sea
Squall line Nor-westers (E-India) Showers
Hail Cyclonic storms in the Bay
of Bengal and Arabian Sea
1. Winter Season (December to February):

In winter the weather is generally associated with Western Disturbances over northern
parts of India. Radar echoes from thunderstorms have generally clearly defined edges and
well developed vertical structures. The tops of the echoes may or may not show the anvil
shape on RHI images. Thunderstorm cell have a tendency to conglomerate in to a band or
lines.
a. Cold front Thunderstorm: Cold front thunderstorms are associated with the passage of
western disturbances or their induced during winter season in the northern parts of the
country. These disturbances move in an easterly or north-easterly direction. The radar echoes
associated with the cold front of the western disturbances are mostly in the form of
convective type of cellular echoes aligned in a line. The heights of tops of clouds are about 10
to 14 km. After the passage of these thunderstorms, sometimes conditions become favourable
(winds calm or sufficiently weak) for super-refraction. Radar images shown below (Fig. 4.20
a to d) represent different feature of the echoes associated with cold front.
 As soon as cold front comes within detectable radar range, echoes from the upper portion
of cumulonimbus clouds appear on images as rarely continuous and generally narrow bands
due to the finite beam width and consequent poor discrimination by the radar. These features
can be seen in the radar images.
 As the cold front comes nearer, the band of echoes begins to appear as composed of a
larger number of cells, often with very little separation, which break up and form again and
change constantly in shape and size as they pass across the range of radar. Although the
actual cloud structure along the cold front may be almost solid with narrow bands, the band
61
of echoes often appear discontinuous on images as the portion of cloud associated with the
front contains drops of too small a size and poor concentration to give detectable echo.
 When the front is very near the radar station, the radar echoes again lose their cellular
structure which can be easily seen by reducing dBZ scale to detect weaker echoes caused by
drops of smaller sizes. The individual cells on RHI images show typical cellular structure
representing strong vertical movement associated with cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud at
the leading edge of the front.
 This trend continuous until the front passes over the radar station when the echoes from
the more distant storm cells become weak because of rain attenuation and the precipitation
appears to be almost evenly distributed around the radar stations over a distance of many
miles.
 The apparent length of the front shows an increase as the front approaches the station due
to decrease in rain attenuation except when the disturbance is over the station itself and
causes considerable absorption of radar energy due to heavy rain thus masking the echoes
from the outer portions of the front.
 The width of the cold front echoes varies greatly with the distance as well as activity. The
width increases with increased activity and as the front approaches the station.
(a) (b)
(b) (d)
Fig. 4.20: (a) Cold front echoes far from radar (b) Cold front echoes nearer to radar (c) Cold
front echoes very near to radar (d) Cold front passes over the radar station
62
b. Squall line: Sometimes the frontal system of thunderstorms is preceded by another
prefrontal squall line type thunderstorm, of comparatively weak activity, parallel to the main
front. This prefrontal activity may be observed almost 80 to 100 km ahead of the main front
(Fig. 4.21 a & b) and merging of both systems yields to long squall line pattern. Squall line
echoes are characterised by cellular bands oriented parallel and close to the surface position
of the convergence zone. The movement of the bands generally approximates to the
movement of the squall line but sometimes the speed of the band is greater. In these cases,
the bands apparently form in the rear of the convergence zone, move through and dissipate on
the leading edge of the zone.
(a) (b)
Fig. 4.21 (a) & (b): Merging of frontal squall line with prefrontal squall line
c. Hailstorms: Hail is invariably associated with violent convection and the radar echoes
which have been positively identified with hail have shown the sharp-edge, high intensity
echoes (more than 50 dBZ above freezing level) characteristic of convective type {(Fig. 4.22
(a) & (b)}. In fact in most of the cases, the extra brightness of the echo is a good criterion for
the presence of hail. An unusually bright convective echo should always be suspected to be
with hail formation.
In many cases, hail has been found to be associated with protuberances or hooks from the
edge of very bright convective type echoes. But it should be clearly born in mind that the
shape of the echo alone can do no more than indicate the possibility of the presence of hail
and much more information can be gathered from consideration of intensity of the echo,
especially in case of hail of damaging size. Local experience will show that for a particular
radar set, there is a threshold value of echo intensity at a specified range above which there
would be a strong probability that hail of damaging size may be present.
63
(a) (b)
Fig. 4.22: (a) High dBZ echoes & (b) Hail warning areas
2. Summer or Pre-monsoon Season (March to May):

a. “Andhis” of Northwest India: “Andhis” are characterised by their great violence, huge
blinding columns of dust, squally weather, lighting, rainfall and sometimes hail also. These
are associated with an upper level surface of discontinuity when almost sudden development
takes place as the heads of growing towering cumuli force their way through the surface of
discontinuity due to the presence of adequate insolation.
The radar echoes first appear like the air-mass thunderstorm echoes. Suddenly some of them
are found to grow in intensity and on RHI display the tops can be seen rising fast. Within
matter of minutes, they align themselves in a squall line pattern and move, giving rise to
“Andhis” {Fig. 4.23 (a), (b) & (c)}. The rest of the randomly distributed air mass type echoes
dissipate after some time when convection due to insolation gets weakened. Sometime due to
extreme dryness of the atmosphere, rain streaks do not reach the ground.
(a) Max-Z (250km range) (b): PPI-V (250km range) (c) Dust Storm warning
(50km range)
Fig. 4.23 (a), (b) & (c): Echoes related to “Andhis” of North-West India
64
b. Nor ‘westers of East India: Nor ‘westers of eastern India are the real aviation hazards.
They are locally known as “Kal-Baisakhi” in East India which literally means the “Doom of
Baisakh” (April) season. These storms are associated with a high level surface of
discontinuity with warm and dry air above cold and moist air. They are characterised by
huge, black, ominous, rolling clouds associated with specially severe up and down drafts,
very severe turbulence, lightning and excessive rainfall. They are known for their suddenness
as shown in Fig. 4.24.
The echo characteristics are similar to those of “Andhis”. The only difference is that Andhis
raise huge columns of dust, there is almost no dust associated with nor’westers. The resultant
echoes are very bright in their case. It is also thought that the heights of tops of nor’wester
echoes are perhaps the highest observed anywhere any time.
Figure 4.24: Radar echoes of Nor‘westers of East India
3. Southwest Monsoon Season (June to September):

This season is the main season in India, when detectable rainfall is available over
large areas of the country with exception of a small shadow zone in the state of Madras
(Chennai). We can classify monsoon echoes into two types, viz. those coastal areas and those
over inland areas.
In coastal areas, with the break of monsoon and only for a few days after that, there is
thunderstorm activity. Thereafter it may be all steady downpours with no lightning or
thunder. It is therefore obvious that on the first few days of the break monsoon in coastal
areas, radar echoes are mainly convective or at the most mixture of convective and stratiform
types. These showers are of stronger intensity and extend to higher heights than the stratiform
65
echoes observed in other seasons. Bright band is almost invariably seen in this season. Over
land areas, monsoon activity is always augmented by local surface heating due to insolation.
It is therefore seen that the echoes almost always start as convective types becoming later on,
a mixture of both convective and stratiform type and finally setting to purely stratiform type
with high tops and intense brightness. In this final stage, bright band is displayed.
a. Steady Rainfall: Steady precipitation from heavy altostratus clouds may be detected by
the weather radar and may appear as a relatively featureless echo on the radar display. An
example is shown in Fig. 4.25. It is mentioned here that this presentation is not true picture of
the distribution of precipitation under such conditions. The precipitation is possibly too light
to be detected by the radar beyond a certain range or is so widespread that it is lost below the
radar horizon due to the curvature of the earth. The echo generally appears brightest in the
centre of radar display and the intensity decrease steadily with increasing range until it
gradually merges with the background noise.
Fig. 4.25: Steady Rainfall
b. Showers: Air-mass showers, during the period of relatively strong convective activity,
appear as scattered echoes with sharply defined edges and well developed vertical structures.
Often these echoes merge into bands and move as squall lines. Air-mass showers tend to
form, grow and dissipate rather quickly. It is necessary to keep a close check on PPI display
pattern to watch the formation of new cells. The growth from a detectable echo cell to a well-
developed one may take place within ten or fifteen minutes. Fig. 4.26 shows a typical
example of echoes from air-mass showers. However, when convective activity is weak or the
66
moisture supply is inadequate, the individual cells may be very small and may show poor
vertical development. They sometimes arrange themselves in close groups and have a longer
life-cycle than the more intense convective cells.
Fig. 4.26: Showers
4. Post–monsoon Season (October to November):

a. Tropical Cyclone: Tropical cyclones affect the east and west coast of the country during
the periods of pre-monsoon (April to May) and post-monsoon (October to December) and
cause extensive damage to life and property. Due to very heavy precipitation in the storm
area, only S-band radars are suitable for studying the distribution of rainfall and tracking the
movement of cyclone once it is in the range of respective radar. The cyclone detection radar
network provides wealth of information on the precipitation pattern, dynamics and
mechanism of formation and decay of the cyclones. A few typical pictures of tropical
cyclones observed with the help of IMD S-band radar network at various stations are shown
in Fig. 4.27.
Fig. 4.27: Some images of Tropical Cyclones
67
III. Classification of Non-Meteorological (non-precipitation) Radar Echoes:
Due to Non-meteorological target, the spurious echoes may be displayed on radar

display. The patterns produced by these effects are very different from real meteorological
echoes and their occurrence is easily identifiable. These echoes may occur due to stationary
objects on the earth’s surface (like Hills, Buildings and Trees), the transient objects (like
ships, aircraft, bird and insects) and interference from other sources (such as nearby radars).
The non-meteorological or non-precipitation echoes mainly occur close to the radar site,
where the beam is at a low elevation and they can be identified by their persistence. The
different types of non-meteorological radar echoes are as under:
a. Ground Clutter: Ground clutter is a type of anomalous propagation in which the radar
beam bounces off objects on or near the ground. Echoes from objects like tall buildings
(especially if the radar site is near a large city or in a valley), cars on a high-traffic road,
TV/Radio towers, and wind farms can be seen in almost all radar reflectivity images if the
conditions are favourable. This "ground clutter" generally appears within a radius of 40-50km
of the radar as a roughly circular region with a random pattern {Fig. 4.28 (a), (b) & (c)}.
Ground clutter can be substantially reduced by the use of radar software.
(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 4.28: An example of ground clutter from a single Radar site on a cloudless day (a, b & c).
Mathematical algorithm can be applied to the radar data to remove echoes where the
echo intensity changes rapidly in an unrealistic fashion. It may be noted that these images
should be use cautiously because ground clutter removal techniques can remove some real
echoes also.
68
The image of fig. 4.28 (a) is the ground clutter pattern which develops on a typical
summer evening after sunset. After sunset, the air near the ground cools faster than aloft
forming a shallow stable layer (inversion) near the ground. The stable layer acts like a lid on
the lower atmosphere and causes the radar beam to be reflected back toward the ground.
When the radar is in more sensitive mode, it not only picks up ground returns like buildings
and trees, but also detects insects, smoke, and dust.
The way to identify ground clutter is, with the help of movement and intensity of the
radar echoes. Ground clutter objects will not move with time and sometimes appear very
intense, unrealistically intense, on base reflectivity. Also, base velocity will usually have a
problem detecting the velocity of ground clutter and will usually alias or throw it out as bad
data. Sometimes ground clutter can also be produced with the dust in the lower atmosphere
about three hundred meters. This is shown by random isolated points of very low reflectivity
within a 15-20km of the radar site (once the beam travels high enough, it no longer samples
the lower atmosphere and doesn’t detect the dust anymore). The Fig. 4.29 (a) shows Radar
reflectivity image without Ground Clutter and in Fig. 4.29 (b) shows the same image after
Ground Clutter Suppression
(a) (b)
Fig. 4.29: (a) Radar reflectivity image without Ground Clutter Suppression (b) The same image
after Ground Clutter Suppression
Note: The yellow and green returns in the above example are not ground clutter by its strict
definition; however, for simplicity, non-precipitation targets may be called ground clutter. When
significant anomalous propagation (AP) is a problem on DWR radar as shown in Fig. 4.29(a), clutter
suppression can be invoked by the radar operator {Fig.4.29(b)}. When the suppression is invoked,
any targets that are determined to be not moving will be automatically removed from the display.
69
b. Side-Lobe Echoes: Every time the antenna rotates, some radiation escapes on each side of
the beam—called “side-lobes.” If a target exists where it can be detected by the side-lobes as
well as the main-lobe, the side-lobe echoes may be represented on both sides of the true echo
at the same range, as shown in Fig. 4.30 (a) & (b). Side-lobes usually show only at short
ranges and from strong tar-gets. They can be reduced through careful reduction of the
sensitivity or proper adjustment.
Radars transmit energy along a main beam having a typical beam-width of about 1°.
There are also secondary power transmissions along with side lobes located a few degrees
from the main beam centre. Normally the side lobe returns are too weak to be significant. An
exception may occur with very highly reflective targets, such as columns of heavy rain or hail
within a cumulonimbus cloud. Fig. 4.31 shows a schematic range height indicator
presentation through a distant cumulonimbus, with the main radar beam drawn at a high
elevation that passes above the physical echo top. The side lobe transmission, however, is
still striking the hail column within the cloud, and the resulting echo is associated by the
radar with the main beam. Thus an apparent ‘spike’ is produced, up to the main beam level,
giving an exaggerated estimate of where the true echo top lies.
(a) Side Lobes (b) Spurious Targets

Fig. 4.30: (a) Geometrical presentation of Side Lobe echo (b) Side lobe echoes indicated with
arrows as spurious targets
70
Fig. 4.31: Range height indicator presentation through a distant cumulonimbus
Note: The main radar beam overshoots the cloud top but the side lobe transmission is reflected. The
true top of the cloud is given by T, and T’ is the observed top. Sometimes side lobes weaker pulses can
be reflected with the objects near the radar and give the appearance of weak reflectivity. This can
contaminate the radar image due to nearby ground clutter.
c. Under highly stable atmospheric conditions: Typically on calm, clear nights the radar
beam can be refracted almost directly into the ground at some distance from the radar,
resulting in an area of intense-looking echoes. This "anomalous propagation” phenomenon
(commonly known as AP) is much less common than ground clutter. Certain sites situated at
low elevations on coastlines regularly detect "sea return", a phenomenon similar to ground
clutter except that the echoes come from ocean waves.
d. Radar returns from birds, insects, and aircraft: Echoes from migrating birds regularly
appear during night time hours between late February and late May, and again from August
through early November. Return from insects is sometimes apparent during July and August.
The apparent intensity and areal coverage of these features is partly dependent on radio
propagation conditions, but they usually appear within 50km of the radar and produce
reflectivity of <30 dBZ {Fig. 4.28 (a)}.
e. Wind Farm Ground Clutter: In the image of Base reflectivity shown in the Fig. 4.28 (b),
Ground clutter is evident as the very low reflectivity scattered about the site. A closer look at
image reveals several green blotches near the site. The animation of this imagery shows those
blotches are not moving, nor are they changing in intensity. These are actually wind farms
being detected by the radar. The beams from the radar are bouncing off the individual
71
turbines and towers in the wind farm, thus showing up as reflectivity in the image. Note that
the radar is in clear-air mode so that the maximum reflectivity it can detect is only about 30
dBZ, which is what the reflectivity from the wind farms is. If the radar were in precipitation
mode, the reflectivity from the wind farms would likely be higher.
f. Radar Beam Spreading Effect: Radars have a certain resolution of data (both by radial as
well as by azimuth). The radial resolution of radar is the number of bins for a given distance
that the beam travels. For example, current advances in some types of radar have one bin for
every 250 meters of travel away from the radar. Thus, these kinds of radars have 250 meter
radial resolution. The azimuthal resolution (also called beam width or beam separation) of
radar, it is the number of radials that the radar can depict in terms of degrees of a circle. For
example, if there are 360 radials that can be shown by radar, then that radar has one radial for
every degree in azimuth. Therefore, the azimuthal resolution for that radar is 1°. The radar
products those are commonly seen having 1° azimuthal resolution, but some advanced radars
have 0.5° azimuthal resolution also. Beam spreading is a term that describes the change in the
size of a bin as distance from the radar site increases due to the spreading of radar beams at
adjacent radials as they move away from the radar site {Fig. 4.32 (a) & (b)}.
(a) (b)
Fig. 4.32: Graphical concept of beam spreading
72
 Description of figure 4.32 (a) & (b):
 Figure 4.32 (a): Assuming that the distance between the range circles are the same for
both pairs of adjacent range circles, the two bins colour in red have the same azimuthal
and radial size (one unit of radial resolution by one unit of azimuthal resolution), but it is
clearly seen that the outer bin is larger than the inner bin. As an example, with radar that
has radial and azimuthal resolutions of 1000 meters and 1°, respectively, the areal size of
one bin ranges from around 0.02 square miles very close to the radar to around 2.5 square
km near the end of the radar’s effective range, a size difference of a factor of about 70.
Thus, it is clear that since a single bin only represents one point of data, then the radar data
is at a seemingly lower resolution farther from the radar than it is closer to the radar. This
causes differences in appearance of radar returns far from and close to the radar site. This
is one way that radar data is naturally distorted, and beam spreading must be taken into
consideration when interpretation of radar images.
 Figure 4.32 (b): An example of beam spreading. In base reflectivity imagery, notice how
the storms that are very close to the radar (near the centre of the image) appear much finer
and less blocky than the storms in southern side and far from the radar.
g. Secondary Radar Echoes: Secondary echoes mean some rare effects deriving from the
non-standard performance of a radar system or from multiple reflections of a radar beam in
hail storm. These echoes can occur with 10 cm (S-Band) radars but are quite unusual with 5
cm (C- Band) radars, except in the presence of distant intense thunderstorms. These
secondary radar echoes can be defined as Second trip Echoes. The radar has a maximum
effective range for determining rainfall rates and this depends on its pulse repetition
frequency, or the time interval between successive pulses. Only those echoes that return
during the interval between the transmission of one pulse and the next can have their
locations unambiguously interpreted. Echoes from targets beyond this maximum range return
to the radar after the next pulse has been transmitted. Their distances are then determined
from the short time interval elapsing since the most recent transmission, rather than from the
longer time interval since the transmission of the original pulse. A false, elongated echo
emanating from the radar site may then be displayed, see Fig. 4.33 & 4.34. Such effects are
known as second-trip echoes, and may be very unexpected and unnerving for an
inexperienced user. In other words, the echoes that return during the interval between the
transmission of one pulse and the next can have their location unambiguously interpreted.
73
The echoes from target beyond the maximum radar range return to the radar after the next
pulse transmission. Their distances are then determined from the short time interval elapsing
since the most recent transmission of the original pulse. Now these days most of the radars
can eliminate these by alternatively transmitting pulses with multi (long) PRF (pulse
Repetition Frequency) application.
(a) (b)
(c)
Fig. 4.33: (a) A Graphical view of Second Trip Echo (b) An Example of Second Trip Echo
& (c) Same Data with Doppler Velocities
The radar image {Fig. 4.34 (c)} shows that second trip echoes in the form of strips
were in fact caused by rain at a distance beyond 400 kilometres to south.
74
(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 4.34: Second trip echoes from beyond the normal maximum range of the radar shown by
X. The top diagram (a) shows a range height indicator diagram where the rain clouds are within
and partly beyond the maximum range. The middle diagram (b) shown is a schematic Plan
Position Indicator with real echoes A and B1, there is also a false echo shown by B2 (c) Radar
image showing second trip echoes.
h. Flare Echoes or Three-body Scatter Spike (TBSS): A TBSS or Hail Spike is an

anomalous echo caused by very large hail in a storm bending the radar beam (Fig.4.35).
When the radar beam moves through a storm containing large hail, the beam may deflect off
of the large hail and move towards the ground. When hitting the ground, the energy then
reflects off the ground, back up to the hail, and back to the radar. There will be a noticeable
time delay between the arrival to the radar site of the energy reflected from the contact of the
beam and hail and the energy reflected from the ground after the collision. The radar will
interpret this delay as echoes farther from the radar site. Therefore, a TBSS will appear on
radar as a “spike,” or long, narrow extension of light reflectivity on the backside of the storm.
It may be noted that this spike must occur directly along a radial.
75
(a) (b)
(c)
Fig. 4.35 (a), (b) & (c): Three Body Scatter Spike
Description of Figure 4.35:

 Figure 4.35 (a): A schematic diagram for the cause of a three-body scatter spike is
shown. The red oval indicates a region in the atmosphere that contains rain and hail (which
would typically be of red colure on base reflectivity). The blue arrows show the path of the
radar beam as it deflects off the hail, bounces to the ground, and then reflects off the ground
to the radar or back to the hail and then to the radar. The three body scatter spike is named
due to the three reflections of the radar beam that occur to give this reflectivity pattern. Image
courtesy of Wikipedia – three-body scatter spike.
 Figure 4.35 (b): An example of radar image of a three-body scatter spike is shown. The
TBSS is evident as the streak of low reflectivity extending past the storm in the image along
the five radials. The white bins in the storm show reflectivity values of over 70 dBZ, a strong
indication of large hail in the storm. The TBSS is an even stronger indicator that large hail is
present. Although this particular scan is at 8.0°, TBSSs can occur at any elevation angle. The
8.0° scan showed this example the best.
76
 Figure 4.35 (c): Another effect which can cause a ‘hail spike’ to appear on a PPI display,
it is the result of lengthening the path of the returning echo through multiple reflections from
the hail and the ground. The extra time taken for the signal to return is interpreted by the
radar as a more distant echo and is represented as a radial spike extending away from the
storm. The left diagram shows a flare echo indicated by H, while the right diagram indicates the
process of multi-reflection of radar signal from hail and ground.
i. Screening of precipitation by Hills: Screening or occultation of precipitation by hills is

the result in a reduction of the rainfall that is estimated by a radar at the place beyond the
high ground. The screening is only partial; correction to the estimated rainfall can be applied
routinely with the knowledge of the topography, according to the percentage of the total
beam that is blocked by the hill as illustrated in Fig. 4.36.
Fig. 4.36: The effect of hills blocking a radar beam
j. Growth and Evaporation of Precipitation below the Beam: The best estimate of the
surface rainfall intensity is obtained when the radar beam elevation is as low as possible,
compatible with the screening and ground clutter problems discussed above. But, as shown in
Fig. 4.37 (a), even at the lowest angle of elevation some rainfall detected within a cloud (at
L) may evaporate in dry air below the level of the beam. This will lead to an overestimate of
the rainfall rate at the surface (O). A practical consequence of this evaporation may be a
77
forecast error of one to two hours for the start of rain at the surface, especially at the leading
edge of warm fronts. The effect is most noticeable at long ranges, where the beam may be
several kilometres above the ground. A process leading to the opposite effect is illustrated in
Fig. 4.37 (b). The low-level enhancement of rainfall beneath the radar beam is common over
wind-facing slopes. Light rain (L), formed in higher level clouds and falling through very
moist, cloudy air near the surface can lead to a large increase in the rainfall rate (H) at very
low levels. This is the ‘seeder-feeder’ mechanism of rainfall intensification. The
enhancement is frequently not detected by radar over hilly terrain where the beam must be
high to avoid the effects of ground clutter.
(a) (b)
Fig. 4.37: Variation in rainfall rates below cloud. Left diagram (a) shows the evaporation of rain
below the radar beam. The right diagram (b) shows the increased rainfall by orographic
enhancement below the radar beam.
k. Drop-Size Effects:
The Z–R relationships quoted in Bright Band contain an implicit assumption concerning the
drop sizes at different rain-fall rates. They tend to overestimate the actual rainfall rate from
clouds such as cumulonimbus, which have a greater proportion of larger raindrops than
assumed. Equally, those layer clouds which contain smaller raindrops than assumed will have
their rainfall underestimated. A correction for this non-uniformity may be made by
comparing the radar estimates of rainfall with those observed in a local rain gauge network.
------
78
5.
USE OF WDSS-II IN
OPERATIONAL NOWCASTING
Soma Sen Roy,
I. Introduction:
The WMO definition of nowcasting limits the time for nowcasts of weather to six
hours, at 1-3 km resolution, updated every 5-10 minutes. Of course, the accuracy and reliable
time limit to which the nowcasts are valid, depends upon the geographical location, the
resolution of the forecast, the observation system being used, the capabilities of the issuing
institution and the weather systems that are sought to be nowcast.
Various forecasting offices of the India Meteorological Department (Meteorological
Centres as well as Regional Meteorological Centres) are mandated to issue nowcasts of
weather including thunderstorm or any other convective activity to the general public as per
specifications below:
(i) Nowcasts for three hours every three hours.
(ii) Outlook for the subsequent three hours
These forecasts are to be updated in the intermediate times, whenever there is chance
of severe weather over the region. The foremost tools available to a forecaster for nowcasting
are:
(a) NWP Model data
(b) Synoptic observations and synoptic charts
(c) Radio-sonde data of the nearest stations and tephigram
(d) Prior experience and thumb-rules for nowcasting
(e) Satellite imagery over the larger region around the station
(f) Radar imagery of the surrounding region
(g) Automatic nowcasting software.
a. NWP Model data: Numerical models, both global (Global Forecast System - GFS) and
regional (Weather Research and Forecasting - WRF) models are being run operationally at
IMD HQ and at regional centres. Additionally, the Unified Model of UK Met Office is being
run operationally at NCMRWF. Product imagery are kept on the website of the respective
organizations. The current generation of numerical model forecasts are generally quite
79
accurate and are especially good at locating accurately the future locations of synoptic
weather system over the Indian region. This is useful for planning 1-5 days ahead in
management of human resources and equipment. This will help in improving Nowcast
accuracy, since disturbed weather over India often happens in conjunction with the passage of
synoptic weather systems over the region.
b. Synoptic Observations and Synoptic Charts: The classical and most dependable tool
for forecasting weather is, the synoptic charts prepared daily for operational weather
forecasting in India. The Forecasting Manuals (FMU) describe in detail, the various synoptic
situations that bring disturbed weather over a region. Since they describe the actual situation,
they are very useful for short term planning. Hence, the detailed interpretation of these charts
is essential for good nowcasting.
c. Tephigrams composed of the Radio-sonde data of the nearest stations as well as other
vertical parameters: Tephigrams give information of the vertical structure of the
atmosphere. Even the 00 UTC radiosonde data can give sufficient prior information about the
occurrence of rainfall over the station at 12 UTC. While, the 12 UTC sounding is a better
indicator of the effect of sensible heating in triggering convection, over most inland stations,
pre-monsoon rainfall may be triggered around this time and sufficient lead time may not be
available for nowcasting using this data. They provide information of the level of inversion,
moisture flow, and at what levels, as well as shear in the wind field, which may trigger
convection. This also gives an indication of the type of convection, and its duration.
d. Prior experience and thumb-rules for nowcasting: The charts and tephigram have to be
interpreted, in conjunction with the topography of the region, the season, the direction of
movement of synoptic systems over the region and local peculiarities. While synoptic factors
play a significant role in the large occurrence of disturbed weather, the actual locations and
time of initiation of deep cumulus convection depend very much upon the interaction of
synoptic factors with mesoscale factors. Not all of this information is available in synoptic
charts and model data. Hence a forecaster has to use prior knowledge of weather occurrence
under the above synoptic systems, to prepare location specific forecasts for the current
scenario. Numerous papers exist, which document the diurnal cycle, the length of the rainfall
period, the spatial distribution, and the region specific predictors which cause thunderstorms
over the Indian region.
80
e. Satellite imagery over the larger region around the station: The visible, infra-red and
sounder data from Indian geostationary satellites, as well as the microwave data from TRMM
and other polar orbiting satellites, is a great help in locating regions of Deep Cumulus
Convection (DCC) as well as cloud organization (such as MCS and MCC). In the absence of
radar data, this is the best source of data for nowcasting over a region. In addition to the jpeg
images available on IMD website, a forecaster may also work on the interactive satellite data
available in realtime at http://www.rapid.imd.gov.in/ .
f. Radar imagery of the surrounding region: Radar data is the best tool available currently
to the forecaster for weather analysis in the short-range. The location and structure of the
thunderstorms, as per the radar ref, height, radial velocity pattern help in locating intense
cells, as well as their movement. Wilson et al () noted that almost 80% of thunderstorms over
the Continental United States form over a line of discontinuity. This is also true of non
monsoon cloud systems over the Indian region, which forms over regions of wind and
moisture discontinuity. The lines of discontinuity and gust fronts are sometimes transient in
nature and not very well captured by synoptic charts. The best source of information about
these lines is in the radar reflectivity and velocity fields. The radar radial velocity data,
additionally, also gives the location of circulations, zones of moisture and wind convergence
on a real-time basis. This helps a forecaster to better prepare for thunderstorm genesis and
longevity.
g. Automatic nowcasting software: Thunderstorm systems show rapid development and

movement. A three hour or even hourly manual forecast cycle for thunderstorm occurrence,
is sometimes unable to provide local forecast of 1-3 km resolution, with sufficient accuracy.
This becomes critical in many mission specific occurrences, e.g. satellite launches, or mega
events involving mass gathering of people, or even for city forecasting or hydrological
forecasting. To provide more accurate nowcasts, there is an urgent need for more rapid
updates as well as accurate nowcasts. This is only possible in an automatic mode, by models
that take into account current local observations and provides near realtime forecasts in a
rapid update cycle. This also permits one to achieve the WMO international mandate on
nowcasting.
In principle, Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models can be applied for
nowcasting of weather. However, they typically have a much coarser resolution in space and
time than the scale of precipitation features; initial conditions for the simulations must be
81
collected over a wide area; and the assimilation of collected data and the numerical
forecasting itself takes considerable time (Mecklenburg et al, 2000). Moreover, during the
first 3 to 6 h of integration, the accuracy of model forecasts is negatively influenced by the
“spin-up” effect (Daley, 1991), an effect that significantly influences the weather forecasts. A
further problem is that convective rainfall, which is often responsible for the most intense
rainfall and weather, is poorly reproduced in models, as the physical processes are complex
and poorly understood. It has long been recognized that during the first few hours of NWP
model integration, precipitation forecasts by NWP models are less accurate than predictions
based on a simple advection of the precipitation field (Austin et al, 1987)).
Hence, there is a separate class of nowcasting models that provide near realtime
forecasts of weather, with higher degree of accuracy in the short term, while sacrificing the
long term accuracy which is achieved by other NWP models. Nowcasting in the India
Meteorological Department (IMD) is being provided for T+0 to T+2 hours, using the
Warning Decision Support System (WDSS-II) software.
II. WDSS-II Software:

The WDSS-II software has been developed at the National Severe Storms Laboratory,
USA (Lakshmanan et al, 2007a) and the technology has been transferred to India
Meteorological Department (IMD) under a joint INDO-US project. The software was well
tested out on various case studies and nowcast parameters optimized (Sen Roy et al, 2010 and
Roy Bhowmik et al, 2011) before being made operational in Delhi (for the Commonwealth
Games, 2010 and thereafter), Hyderabad (2011), Chennai (2014), Kolkata(2015) and
Jaipur(2015).
The software has threefold usage in the operational setup of IMD.
(i) Address the last stage requirements of the operational nowcasters at various
Meteorological Centres of IMD to provide accurate nowcasts. It provides quality controlled,
geolocated, 3-dimensional reflectivity and de-aliased velocity fields calculated from the radar
data for 250 km around a radar station.
(ii) Provide the general public with an automatic, rapidly updating forecast of reflectivity
values through the web portal. It provides nowcast of reflectivity data for upto two hours for
250 km around a radar station with an updation frequency of 10 minutes, and latency time of
about 15 minutes. It also provides a measure of observed azimuthal shear values for 50 km
around a radar station for aviation weather forecasting.
82
(iii) Provide quality controlled Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) data to various downstream
users, primarily for assimilation of radar data into NWP models.
All these products are available to a forecaster at his table, and helps in quick decision
making. The purpose of introducing the software at the Meteorological Centre level is
twofold:
 Forecasting offices are not always collocated with radar sites. Interactive assessment of the
radar data, is essential for a forecaster to correctly assess the strength of a thunderstorms and
their possible growth, decay and direction of movement. The wg viewer utility permits the
forecaster to load the last few hours of digital radar data, draw cross sections through the
reflectivity and velocity data at the same point, analyse as well as see the movement of the
systems.
 Radar data is generally transmitted to the Central Data Server from radar sites all over
India through a VPN Network. Due to communication problems, radar data does not always
reach a remote location in time to provide any real time benefits of nowcasts. To reduce the
latency time of update of WDSS-II products on the public website with respect to the radar
scantime, one needs to reduce the communication time. This is possible, only when the
WDSS-II software is installed on a server in the radar network, or to a network that is directly
connected to the radar network. Fig. 5.1 displays the sequence of WDSS-II algorithms that
are run on the radar data for operational nowcasting.
Fig. 5.1: Sequence of WDSS-II algorithms run on the radar data prior to nowcasting. The grey
square boxes denote the algorithms while the underlined text denotes the products. The
encircled products have been used for analysis of data and nowcasting.
83
a. Quality Control Algorithms in WDSS-II Software:
The reflectivity and radial velocity data fields of the radar data are often considered
contaminated, from the viewpoint of running automated algorithms. The contaminants are
generally from non-meteorological phenomena which leave a signature in the radar data.
Both the velocity and reflectivity data are quality controlled using different algorithms. Since
most of the Doppler Radars are close to urban areas, the velocity data field is contaminated
by numerous biological clutter as well as noise due to secondary transmitters. Hence, as a
first step of quality control, the velocity data is first smoothened by using the outlier
technique of the “w2smooth” tool of the WDSS-II package, on a default window that moves
through the data field, wherein values that are outside a 1.8*sigma band around the mean are
set to be the mean. The velocity data field is further de-aliased using the WDSS-II tool
“wishdealiasing” which has a 2-dimensional (radial and azimuth) multiple pass dealiasing
technique (Zhang and Wang 2006) to obtain more accurate and reliable reference velocities
from aliased velocity observations. The Azimuthal Shear, which is the estimate of rotation in
a storm, evaluates the derivative of the wind velocity in azimuth direction. The WDSS-II tool
“w2circ”, which is used for this purpose, uses a two dimensional Local Linear Least Squares
Derivative technique that minimizes the large variances in rotational and divergent shear
calculations (Smith and Elmore 2004). The radar reflectivity data may be contaminated by:
(a) ground clutter and biological clutter contamination (b) anomalous propagation echoes. As
part of pre-processing at the radar station, the reflectivity field is analyzed to segregate
precipitating from non-precipitating (and data artifact) echoes using clutter maps, notch filters
and phase coding of the signals. The second stage involves off-radar site quality control, as in
the present case, which involves removal of non-weather echoes such as anomalous
propagation echoes, biological and sea clutter echoes that persist after the pre-processing at
the radar station. We addressed the quality control of these echoes in this study using a
WDSS-II tool “w2qcnn”, which has an algorithm based on the neural network technique,
trained on a million point radar data set over USA (Lakshmanan et al. 2007a, b). It may be
noted however, that the radial velocity and its related products will mainly be used in this
paper for diagnostic purposes. Only the quality controlled reflectivity data is used for
nowcasting. The quality controlled reflectivity data is mapped into a 3D Cartesian field using
the WDSS-II tool “w2merger” (Lakshmanan et al. 2006). Briefly, in this method, the
problem of combining data from multiple radars is addressed with the help of ‘‘intelligent
agents’’ which monitor the movement of the storm at the position that it is currently in, and
finds a place in the resulting grid based on time difference. While this tool is best suited for
84
working with multiple radars, merging data from single radar, results in a simple Cartesian
grid of radar-derived variables. A maximum reflectivity field in the Cartesian plane is then
created for the entire domain. This 2-dimensional reflectivity field is the basis for the nowcast
algorithm. All the above tools and their command line options have been optimized for usage
on Indian radars (Roy Bhowmik et al. 2011).
b. Nowcast Algorithms in WDSS-II software:

The WDSS-II software has two softwares for nowcasting applications:
(i) Cell Tracker:
The legacy nowcasting tool in the WDSS-II software is a Cell Tracker which is based
on the Storm Cell Identification and Tracking (SCIT) algorithm, uses centroid identification
and tracking technique to identify and track individual storms within a convective region and
provide cell characteristic information (Johnson et al. 1998). The algorithm uses thresholds of
reflectivity, length of segments, area of components (as well as other thresholds) and the
presence in multiple height levels to detect a storm. No velocity data are processed by this
algorithm. However, the short lifetimes of most cells over the Indian region (10-30 minutes),
coupled with the ten minute interval between volume scans in the operational scan strategy of
the Indian Doppler radars, does not provide sufficient information of the evolution of the
cells. The latency time of updation of nowcast products on the web (about 15 minutes from
the end of a volume scan) also does not permit derivation of much useful information in real-
time usage of this tool. The centroid-based identification and tracking of storms can also
cause a number of tracking instabilities, especially with more organized systems.
(ii) Area Tracker: A newer, more sophisticated convective area tracking algorithm is also
provided within the WDSS-II software, which is the basis of the nowcasting over the Indian
region. It is based on a statistical K-means clustering technique. The software initially
projects the maximum reflectivity echoes onto a 2-dimensional plane. Then it uses a hybrid
method to identify storms in images and arrange the identified storms hierarchically, applying
a segmentation-based approach (Lakshmanan et al. 2003). The clustering is done at multiple
scales ranging from the tracking of individual cells to the tracking of large-scale systems such
as cyclones. These clusters are tracked independently with greater stability than the centroid-
based algorithms. Time histories of tracked cluster can then be diagnosed for trend
information for 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes and 120 minutes ahead. At
each forecast time step, the information from multiple scales is combined together to provide
85
nowcasts of gridded reflectivity values 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, 90 minutes and
120 minutes ahead.
c. Validation of Nowcast Algorithms in WDSS-II software: Deterministic forecasts, as in

the present case, do not realistically account for the forecast uncertainty. This is especially
true, when the nowcasts are locations specific, and the lifetime of the systems is short. Over
the Indian region, the character of convection, and cloud cell lifetimes show wide spatial and
inter-seasonal variability. On a test mode, the software was extensively validated with
thunderstorms of Delhi (Sen Roy et al, 2014).
Convection over Delhi, is not generated in-situ; rather, it is associated with the
movement of large scale systems over the area. This is coupled with the variation of the solar
insolation and the atmospheric circulation over the region. While the wind shear in the
atmospheric column peaks in January and February, the surface temperature is highest in
May and June. The moisture at the surface peaks during the Monsoon season (July to
September), when rainfall too is maximum. Consequently, distinctly different cloud regimes
form over this region during the year. These may be (a) cloud systems that derive energy
primarily from the atmospheric shear and are less dependent on thermodynamic potential of
the atmosphere- resulting in convective lines associated with winter and early pre-monsoon
weather systems, (b) cloud systems that depend mainly on the sensible heat from the
boundary layer atmosphere for cloud growth, resulting in the formation of deep convective
cells in the pre-monsoon (April-June) and post monsoon (October – November) seasons and
(c) and thirdly, cloud systems that primarily depend on the latent heat from the atmospheric
moisture for their growth resulting in wide, long lived convective cells that form during the
monsoon season.
Frame-to-frame validation was carried out qualitatively between forecasts and the
observation fields valid for the corresponding times, using the predicted storm vectors and
cell characteristics as given in the nowcast tool. Quantitative comparison of forecasts with
analysis field of reflectivity, is done in this study using the Model Evaluation Tools (MET)
package (http://www.dtcenter.org/met/users/index.php). The Method for Object based
Diagnostic Evaluation (MODE) tool, which is a part of the MET software, follows an object
based verification technique, that compares the location and intensity of forecast and
observed reflectivity regions as well as structural factors such as the shape of the precipitation
area, the change of intensity, the alignment and the size of the matched objects in the forecast
and observation data fields (Davis et al. 2006a, 2006b; Brown et al. 2007).
86
The important finding of the frame-by-frame study was the inability of the inbuilt
growth-decay algorithm to capture the evolution of storm cells. The results of the quantitative
analysis indicate that, the low intensity convective line zones, which are characteristic of
winter and early pre-monsoon weather systems, show the most rapid temporal change in the
overall area under convection. This leads to larger area errors during nowcasting of these
systems. On the other hand, pre-monsoon weather systems comprise mostly of isolated cells
that reach great heights, move very fast but do not have much areal growth. The highest error
in the nowcasting of these systems is mostly in respect of location error, as well as error in
forecast of the intensity of the cells. The overall error in nowcasting is least for the monsoon
systems over the Delhi region. The time dependent error in nowcasting is investigated
through the temporal evolution of the standard deviation of the histogram curves of the
various MODE parameters. One may infer from these results that the 90 minute forecast of
the convective area during the pre-monsoon and monsoon systems is as good as the 30
minute forecast for the late winter-early pre-monsoon systems. It was also noted that the error
due to the shift in the centroid of the forecast object, although highest for the winter event,
tends to the become constant 90th minute onwards for all systems. The intensity forecast
errors seem to be in wide variance in the three cases for all times. It is least for the late
winter-early pre-monsoon systems and highest for the pre-monsoon systems at all temporal
scales.
A more qualitative assessment of the convective systems over the Indian region
indicates that there are some basic thunderstorm characteristics that an automatic
extrapolation based nowcast system does not pick up very well. Over North India, during the
pre-monsoon season, convective squall line systems gradually organize in a general north-
south orientation along a line of discontinuity, starting from isolated convection that form
earlier during the day. After organization, these systems suddenly pick up speed and move
very fast – in a northwest to southeast direction. This increase in speed, after organization, is
because these mutually interactive cells, after organization, start moving with the steering
flow from the upper level high speed winds below the jet stream. This changeover is poorly
picked up by the extrapolation based software, due to the inherent limitations of the
algorithm. Wherever such sudden changeover of speed and direction happens, either due to
organization of cells, or interaction of two different lines of discontinuity in the
wind/moisture fields, especially during the pre-monsoon season, the software is unable to
pick up the changeover time and error is larger. However, the convective systems with the
87
most rainfall associated with them occur during the south-west and north-east monsoon
seasons, and are well tracked and forecast by the software.
--------
88
6.
SOP FOR ALL INDIA NOWCAST SERVICES
Kamaljit Ray,
I. Introduction:
Nowcasting is based on the ability of the forecaster to assimilate great quantities of
weather data, conceptualize a model that encompasses the structure and evolution of the
phenomenon and extrapolate this in time. Nowcasts require high resolution of spatial and
temporal meteorological data to detect and predict the occurrence of an event. Lack of data of
the mesoscale, imposes limit on ability to diagnose and predict an event. Nowcasting in India
has benefited from major developments in observational meteorology and computer-based
interactive data processing and display systems in IMD. The existing SOP of Nowcasting at
airports for aviation services is a well laid out document for monitoring and nowcasting
services of significant weather events affecting the country. In view of the recent
improvement in monitoring and forecasting due to introduction of (i) digital and image
information at 10 minutes interval from a good network of Doppler Weather Radars, (ii)
dense automatic weather station (AWS) network, (iii) half hourly satellite observations from
Kalpana and INSAT satellites, (iv) better analysis tools in synergy system at forecaster’s
workstation and (v) availability of nowcast models, (vi) computational and communication
capabilities, nowcasting of thunderstorms/squalls and hailstorms in stations covered by
Doppler Weather Radars was implemented in December 2012 for 125 cities, which have now
increased to 150 cities. Considering the importance and reliability of DWR based information
for nowcast of thunderstorm and associated weather, in the first phase, major stations/cities
which come under the coverage of DWR are included for nowcasting of convective weather
and in the future, cities for nowcasting will be increased with the expansion of DWR
networks.
Thus, the SOP prepared in 2012 for initiation of the service is updated for immediate
implementation.
1) A list of 155 cities has been prepared, to be covered for issue of Nowcast
(thunderstorm/squalls/convective activity) by various SWFCs and RWFCs at various
MCs and RMCs. The list has been prepared so as to also include those stations/cities
which have a part time/IMD observatory and thus their Nowcast can be verified. The
Nowcast is valid for a radius of 50 Kms around the city/station.
89
2) Nowcast is prepared both in text as well as in graphical form. Cities which come
under the scope of nowcast are shown in the GIS based all India Map. Cities where
nowcast are issued are shown in different colours depending upon the intensity of
warning. In order to get the nowcast text of any station one has to move the cursor
over the icon of that station.
3) Nowcast will be prepared and updated by MC/RMC at every three hourly interval. All
Nowcast Cells functional in RMCs and MCs are provided a User ID and Password
and they directly upload the nowcast bulletin to IMD web site as per the following
procedure:
a) Step I:- Open the URL: http://202.54.31.51/nowcast/login.aspx

The following page will appear:
b) Step II:- Login with User ID and Password. The page for respective nowcast
cell will open e.g.
There are five options in the drop down list against each station. User can check
each city and select warning with respect to that city and submit the record. This
90
record will be saved in My SQL Database and one XML file will be generated
with respect to this record and nowcast will be updated and appear on All India
Nowcast Page with BHUVAN background on IMD website.SMS alert will be
simultaneously generated for registered farmers in 50 kms radius of that
city/station and sent in local language through M-Kisan Portal.
c) Step III: - Check the updated nowcast on IMD website.
4) The standard hours for issue of Nowcast will be 0100, 0400, 0700, 1000, 1300, 1600,
1900, 2200 hrs IST. However, in case of any sudden insitu development noticed in
DWR over any area at any time, the nowcast has to be updated.
Imp: While updating nowcast for any station at any time it has to be noted that
the appropriate Nowcast options for all other stations have to be selected again,
beside that station.
5) Verification of Nowcast forecast will be on Daily basis as per the procedure and
verification software provided by Nowcast unit, New Delhi. The verification sheet for
the month has to be forwarded to Nowcast Unit, New Delhi by the first week of the
subsequent month for scrutiny. A register to be maintained by the duty officer
indicating the Nowcast uploaded and the realised weather. In the last column, tools
used and precursors for the issued Nowcast may also be given.
6) Nowcasts will be disseminated to the various users through the following mode of
dissemination:-
a. All Nowcasts will be uploaded on the website.
91
b. All Nowcast warnings to be sent by SMS & Email in addition to the existing
practice by Fax to all Disaster Managers of the state including senior
Government officers
c. All Nowcast warnings uploaded by various IMD offices are automatically sent
through Nowcast Unit, New Delhi as SMS alert to 1 crore farmers registered
with M-Kisan Portal of Ministry of Agriculture.
7) In order to make sure that the real time data is available at the earliest at the
forecasting stations, The SWFCs near to the Doppler stations to be provided a
workstation (module of Doppler radar) for regular monitoring and quick updates.
8) The Nowcast service in all offices will be under the responsibility of a class-1 officer,
with overall responsibility of Director/DDGM of the Met Centre /Regional Met
Centre. The Nowcast service is round the clock.
9) All Nowcast activities in various MCs and RMCs will be coordinated by Nowcast
Unit under DDGM(S) at New Delhi. As approved by Nowcast Unit, New Delhi,
Nowcast warning for Thunderstorm/Squall/Hail only, will be issued by any
MC/RMC. Any addition of crucial stations from tourism/religious point of view may
be intimated to Nowcast Unit, DDGM (S), New Delhi for inclusion in All India
Nowcast.
10) In the month of February DDGM, RMC may issue a letter regarding Pre-Monsoon
exercise, about the upkeep of DWR and duty arrangements to manage the Nowcast
activities efficiently. Director I/C MC will conduct pre monsoon exercise in
consultation with DDGM, RMC and will ensure the upkeep and serviceability of
DWR in their region, under intimation to Nowcast unit, DGM, New Delhi.
11) Annual one day “Nowcast Workshop” to be organised by various RMCs for all
offices of their region before the ‘Pre-monsoon season ‘for improving Nowcast skills
of the forecasters and report be sent to Nowcast unit, DDGM(S), New Delhi .
-------
92
REFERENCES
1. Austin, G. L., Bellon A., Dionne P., and Roch M., ‘On the interaction between radar
and satellite image nowcasting systems and mesoscale numerical models, in
Mesoscale Analysis and Forecasting’, edited by B. Battrick and E. Rolfe, Eur. Space
Agency Spec. Publ., ESA-SP 282, 225– 228, 1987.
as quoted in
Lin, C., Vasic´ S., Kilambi A., Turner B., and Zawadzki I., ‘Precipitation forecast
skill of numerical weather prediction models and radar nowcasts’, Geophys. Res.
Lett., 2005, 32, L14801, doi:10.1029/2005GL023451.
2. Barnes, L. R., E. Gruntfest, M. H. Hayden, D. M. Schultz, and C. Benight, 2007,
‘False Alarms and Close Calls: A Conceptual Model of Warning Accuracy’, Weather
Forecasting, 22, 1140–1147.
3. Daley, R., ‘Atmospheric Data Analysis’, (ed. Cambridge University Press), 457 pp.,
1991.
4. Environment Canada, ‘Radar interpretation’ What am I looking at? (Echoes), What is
a PRECIP Radar Product, Common interpretation errors (Website:
http://www.ec.gc.ca/meteo-weather).
5. Instrument Division, ‘Weather Radar Observation Manual’, Volume-I, 58-73, India
Meteorological Department New Delhi, 1964.
6. Jeff Duda; ‘How to use and interpret Doppler weather radar’ A novice guide to
understanding the principles of radar and how to use base reflectivity and base
velocity to show that more than rain and wind is occurring (Website:
http://www.meteor.iastate.edu).
7. Johnson J, Mackeen P, Witt A, Mitchell E, Stumpf G, Eilts M, Thomas K (1998),
‘The storm cell identification and tracking algorithm: an enhanced WSR-88D
algorithm’, Weather and Forecasting 13: 263–276.
8. Lakshmanan V, Smith T., Stumpf G. and Hondl K.D., ‘The Warning Decision
Support System Integrated Information’, Weather Forecasting, 2007 a, 22, 596–612.
9. Lakshmanan V, Fritz A, Smith T, Hondl K, Stumpf G., ‘An Automated Technique to
Quality Control Radar Reflectivity Data’, 2007 b, J Appl Meteorol Climatol
46(3):288–305.
93
10. Mecklenburg, S., Joss J. and Schmid W.,’ Improving the nowcasting of precipitation
in an Alpine region with an enhanced radar echo tracking algorithm’, J. Hydrology,
2000, 239(1-4),46-68
11. MKX Webmaster, ‘Using and Understanding Doppler Weather Radar’ National
Weather Service Weather Forecast Office, Milwaukee/Sullivan, WI; April 8th 2009.
12. Raghwan S., ‘Radar Meteorology’, 2003, Kluwer Academic Publishers.
13. Ray Kamaljit, Mohapatra M., Bandopadhyay B.K., Sikka D.R, Chakravarthy Kalyan,
Sen Bikram, Debnath G.C., Stella S., Das Sunit, Duraisamy M., SaiKrishnan K.C,
Kannan B., Goyal Suman, Jordar D., Saxena Rahul, Bhan S.C., Tyagi Ajit, Mohanty
U.C., Das Someshwar and Rathore L.S., 2013, ‘Report on Pre-monsoon Season 2013
Thunderstorm over India’, Report No. SMRC STORM PROJECT-2013/2/2013, India
Meteorological Department.
14. Ray Kamaljit, Bandopadhyay B.K., Sen Bikram, Sharma Pradeep, Warsi A. H.,
Mohapatra M., Yadav B.P., Debnath G.C., Stella S., Das Sunit, Duraisamy M.,
Rajeev V. K., Barapatre V., Paul Surender, Singh Himanshu, SaiKrishnan K.C.,
Goyal Suman, Das A.K., Bhan S.C., Sikka D.R , Chakravarthy Kalyan, Tyagi Ajit,
Das Someshwar and Rathore L.S., 2014, ‘Pre-Monsoon Thunderstorms 2014: A
Report’, Report No. ESSO/IMD/SMRC STORM PROJECT-2014/01(2014)/03, India
Meteorological Department.
15. Romon F. Hanssen, ‘Radar Interferometry; Data Interpretation and error analysis’,
Volume-2 of Remote sensing and Digital Image Processing. Springer, 2001.
16. Ronald E. Rinehart, ‘Radar For Meteorologists’ Fourth Edition, Columbia, U.S.A.
Rinehart Publication 2004.
17. Roy Bhowmik, S. K., Sen Roy S., Srivastava K., Mukhopadhay B., Thampi S. B.,
Reddy Y. K., Singh H., Venkateswarlu S.and Adhikary S., ‘Processing of Indian
Doppler Weather Radar Data for Mesoscale Applications’, Meteor. Atmos. Phys.,
2011, 111(3-4), 133-147.
18. Sen Roy S, Lakshmanan V., Roy Bhowmik S.K.and Thampi S.B., ‘Doppler Weather
Radar based Nowcasting of Cyclone Ogni’, J. Earth Syst. Sci., 2010, 119,183–200.
19. Sen Roy S., Saha, S. B., Bhowmik, S. R., & Kundu, P. K. (2014), ‘ Optimization of
Nowcast Software WDSS-II for Operational Application over the Indian Region’,
Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics, 124(3-4), 143-166.Zhang J, Wang S (2006)
An automated 2D multipass Doppler radar velocity dealiasing scheme. J Atmos
Ocean Technol 23(9): 1239–1248.
94
20. SIGMET, Part of Vaisala Group, ‘IRIS Product and Display Manual’ Version 8.12.3,
June 2009, A-1 to A-7; 1-1 to 1-2; 2-1 to 2-89 and 3-1 to 3-71.
21. Skolnik, Merrill I., Editor, 1970, ‘Radar Handbook’, New York, McGraw-Hill Book
Co.
22. Skolnik, Merrill I., 1980, ‘Introduction to Radar System’, New York, McGraw-Hill
Book Co., 581 pp.
23. Smith TM, Elmore KL (2004), ‘The use of Radial Velocity Derivatives to Diagnose
Rotation and Divergence’, Proceedings of 11th conference on aviation, range, and
aerospace, American Meteorological Society, Hyannis, MA, CD-ROM.
24. Srinivasan, V., Ramamurthy, K., Nene, Y.R., 1973, ‘Discussion of Typical Synoptic
Weather Situation, Summer Nor'westers & Andhis and Large Scale Convective
Activity over Peninsula and Central parts of the Country’, F.M.U. Rep No. III-2.2,
India Meteorological Department.
25. Taylor, John R., 1982, ‘An Introduction to Error Analysis’, University Science Books,
Mill Valley. CA, 270 pps.
26. Tyagi Ajit 2007, ‘Thunderstorm Climatology over Indian Region’, MAUSAM, 58 (2),
189-212.
-------
95
OPERATIONAL MANUAL
FOR THUNDERSTORM NOWCAST

Nowcast Manual 2015

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Nowcast Manual 2015

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

No.

INDIA METEOROLOGICAL DEPARTMENT (IMD)

Number: ESSO/IMD/Nowcasting/Synoptic Met-TS/03(2015)/19

Nowcast Operational Manual is the result of valuable inputs provided by

Chapter 2 Functional Aspects of Doppler Weather Radar 21

Chapter 3 Radar Elements and Displays 32

Chapter 4 Classification of Weather Radar Echoes 42

Chapter 5 Use of WDSS-II in Operational Nowcasting 79

Chapter 6 SOP for All India Nowcast Services 89

Fig.1.2: Climatology of Thunderstorms over India in April

Fig. 1.4: Stations issuing Thunderstorm Nowcast

III. Nowcast Verification:

Average 0.9 0.6 0.4 0.5 0.4

April 1.0 0.5 0.8 0.6 0.2 2669

May 1.0 0.4 0.8 0.3 0.6 2365

June 0.9 0.5 0.7 0.2 0.2 1534

Average 0.9 0.5 0.85 0.4 0.4

January 1.0 0.7 0.7 0.4 0.5 2191

February 0.9 0.8 0.8 0.5 0.3 1968

Average 0.8 0.7 0.7 0.3 0.3

January No Warning Issued 1974

February No Warning Issued 1677

March 1.0 0.2 0.3 0.8 0.4 1607

February No Warning Issued 1269

Average 1.0 1.0 0.1 0.9 1.0

DWR Jaipur was unserviceable from January to May-2014

1.0 1.0 0.2 1.0 0.8 1625

1.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 0.9 2626

1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9 481

1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9 1645

Average 1.0 1.0 0.1 1.0 0.9

March 1.0 0.6 0.9 0.5 0.1 3033

April 1.0 0.5 0.6 0.5 0.3 3440

May 0.9 0.6 0.7 0.4 0.4 2734

June 1.0 1.0 0.5 1.0 0.5 1601

July 1.0 1.0 0.5 1.0 0.5 2821

August 0.9 0.6 0.7 0.3 0.4 471

September 0.9 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.3 1701

Average 1.0 0.7 0.6 0.6 0.4

May 1.0 0.8 0.2 0.8 0.8 2118

June 1.0 0.9 0.2 0.8 0.8 1430

July 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.4 1650

August 1.0 1.0 0.7 0.9 0.5 250

September 1.0 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.2 987

Average 1.0 0.9 0.5 0.8 0.5

4. MC Jaipur 3 Not Verified - -

6. MC Hyderabad 2 Not Verified - -

Station Warning Time of Issue

Chandigarh F/C : Hailstorm February 15, 2014 5:57 PM

Ludhiana F/C : Hailstorm February 15, 2014 5:57 PM

Patiala F/C : Hailstorm February 15, 2014 7:01 PM

Ludhiana F/C : Hailstorm February 15, 2014 7:01 PM

Ambala F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM

Patiala F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM

Chandigarh F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM

Ludhiana F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM

Bhiwani F/C : Hailstorm March 28, 2014 4:23 PM

Ambala F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM

Patiala F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM

Chandigarh F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM

Ludhiana F/C : Squall March 28, 2014 4:23 PM

Bhiwani F/C : Hailstorm March 28, 2014 4:23 PM

Fig. 2.1: WSR-98D/S radar

b. Concept of Radar Beam: