John Wheeler: Weather radar war born out of 1940s aircraft radar

FARGO — It's on virtually every smart phone out there and has become a part of our daily lives. Most people, however, have no idea what it is. The acronym is "Radio Detection And Ranging," or "radar.

" A ray of electromagnetic energy is beamed out from a transmitter/receiver called a radome. The beam is reflected off objects in its path, and strength of the return signal is used to determine precipitation intensity. A second pulse sent a fraction of a second later is used to measure velocity toward or away from the radome turns radar into Doppler radar.



Dual-polarity uses a vertical ray and a horizontal ray simultaneously which can determine the shape and size of the rain, snow, or hail being observed. Originally, in the early 1940s, radar was used in aircraft to detect other aircraft. The device did not work as well in precipitation because of all the clutter until it occurred to people that knowing the location of rain could be useful.

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