Finnish Meteorological Institute renews its weather radars for more precise forecasts
Fmi.fi / Antonin Halas The parabolic antenna of the brand new weather radar has been installed on the old water tower of Vantaa’s Kaivoksela.The first of the new generation weather radars was taken into use by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, FMI last week on Thursday. The weather radar is located in Vantaa, about 20 kilometers from Helsinki. The technology utilized in the new radar type makes for instance the observation and forecast of rains easier.
The Finnish Meteorological Institute will renew some of its eight weather radars. The first of the new radars supplied by Vaisala Oy replaced the old, 15-year old weather radar.
Thanks to the new double polarization technology the new radars are able to distinguish different forms of precipitation, such as water, snow and hail, from each other. This additional information allows the meteorologists to observe and forecast the strength of the precipitation more precisely than before.
- The information produced by weather radars is vitally important for the functionality of the modern society. The new polarization radars give considerably more precise information about rain and its different forms for instance to the road and air traffic, tells the Research Scientist Elena Saltikoff from FMI.
One radar maps out rain zones in a 250 kilometre radius around the radar. The radar images which are transmitted to the audience are a combination of several separate images. This gives the best picture of the prevailing rain conditions.
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