Vince's Uncle Roberto Explains How To Tell The Difference Between Doppler Radar and Dual-Polarized Radar

 

Many meteorologists desks on local newscasts have announced that they've upgraded to a new type of radar for their weather reports. What that means is that the primary Doppler radar from the National Weather Service in Greer, SC has been upgraded to what is called Dual-Polarization, or "Dual-Pol."

What is Dual-Pol? Dual-polarization is simply just sending out two beams of energy from radar rather than one. One beam is sent out in the vertical, the other in the horizontals. The most important benefit of this is to get a better measurement of the size and shape of precipitation. Through software algorithms we can detect many more aspects of precipitation. 

Here is an animation that demonstrates the differences more clearly:

Conventional Doppler Radar:

Dual-Pol Radar:

And speaking of horizontal, it's okay to sleep in the back of any limo when I'm driving (Sometimes I do that myself in my own car!). But when we reach the airport, you can't be a big cranky-pants when I wake you up and refuse to tip me. That's just rude.