How does radar predict the weather?

Meteorological radar is a radar specially used to detect the distribution and change of clouds and rain in the atmosphere, the intensity of precipitation, the height and thickness of clouds, the wind direction and wind speed in different atmospheres and other meteorological elements. There are mainly rain radar, wind radar and cloud radar.

The electromagnetic wave emitted by the radar is scattered by the target and received by the radar receiver in the propagation process, and the signal or image reflecting the radar echo characteristics can be displayed on the radar display. Different weather systems or weather phenomena have different echo characteristics, and radar realizes meteorological detection according to this principle.

The echo intensity of weather radar depends on some radar parameters, the scattering characteristics of precipitation, the distance from the scatterer to the radar and the attenuation of the beam by atmospheric medium in the propagation path. The nature of weather system can be inferred from the echo intensity and its distribution of weather targets. In addition, echo intensity is the basic data for radar to measure rainfall. Therefore, it is very important to analyze the echo intensity in radar observation.