Radar meteorology: highlights of recent advances

Radar meteorology has recently reached new heights of operational and scientific development. This has been fostered largely by the installation of the first generation of operational NEXRAD (WSR-88D) Doppler radars across the USA, the initiation of a demonstration network of operational radar wind profilers in the central USA, and the early installation of the first of the Terminal Doppler Weather Radars (TDWR) for the detection of hazardous low level windshear at major airports. The development of the spaceborne Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), to be launched in 1997, has also spurred widespread R & D activity on new instruments, algorithms, and ground truth. These and the use of radar in a broad spectrum of major research projects has provided a host of new insights. In turn these activities have raised new questions and demonstrated the need for further improvements, thus giving renewed impetus to the entire field. This paper summarizes some of the more exciting developments in progress and on the horizon