Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

A NEW generation of the weather monitoring Doppler radar system, which can provide forecasters with more accurate weather information, was put into use on Fenghuang Mountain in Bao’an District yesterday, around 6 km from the mouth of the Pearl River.

Compared with the conventional Doppler radar, which is located on the hill inside the Shenzhen Flowers and Gardens Exposition Park in Futian District, the new generation system — the dual polarization radar — can send and receive both horizontal and vertical pulses, providing much more informative two-dimensional pictures, according to Luo Ming, an engineer with Shenzhen National Climate Observatory.

“This system helps forecasters clearly identify rain, hail, snow and ice pellets, and other flying objects and improves forecasting for all types of weather. The conventional radar system can only send out a horizontal pulse that gives forecasters a one-dimensional picture of whatever is in the air,” Luo said.

The use of the radar system, after two years of construction, marks a milestone in Shenzhen’s meteorological undertakings and will provide technical support for decision makers in disaster relief and emergency treatment, in addition to improving the city’s weather forecasting and meteorological service level.

For flood forecasts, the system can help forecasters more accurately estimate the amount of rain reaching the ground and identify areas of heavy rainfall. This information is expected to help forecasters issue more timely and accurate flood and flash flood warnings.

Dual polarization radar provides high quality data on radar displays as the detection resolution has been increased to 1,250 meters from the original 1,000 meters made by the conventional radar system.

The detection area of the system is 920 kilometers in diameter. As the system adopts dual-channel imaging technologies, it enables mapping of the radar systems in South China into the national weather radar network, and thus expands the city’s weather detecting coverage 2,000 kilometers northward. On the other hand, it provides solid technical support for precision monitoring and forecasting for disastrous weather, such as typhoons and thunderstorms, in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area by mapping onto other radar systems in the area.