Upgraded Cairns Doppler weather radar now available to the public
20/07/2015
The Bureau of Meteorology has completed a significant upgrade of the Cairns (Saddle Mountain) weather watch radar, which will provide Doppler images on its website from today.
The Cairns radar is strategically located in the national radar network, and will provide an enhanced service to allow local communities, emergency services, mining and agricultural stakeholders in Far North Queensland to track local weather.
Radar images will be higher resolution, more detailed and able to scan every 6 minutes, a significant increase from the previous 10 minute updates.
Doppler functionality from the upgraded radars will provide forecasters with improved ‘nowcasting’ capabilities to more accurately detect and monitor severe weather events such as floods, thunderstorms and tropical cyclones in the densely populated northern regional centres of Townsville and Cairns.
The Cairns (Saddle Mountain) weather watch radar was installed in late 2014, and replaced the previous radar located at the same site.
The Cairns radar now has greater range and sensitivity as a result of the installation of a larger antenna. The Cairns radar is situated approximately 9km northwest of Cairns airport at Saddle Mountain on the Kuranda range, and sits at a height of 652m above mean sea level.
Radar works through the transmission of electro-magnetic wave pulses that are reflected from particles such as raindrops, hailstones or snowflakes.
Measuring the characteristics of the reflected wave pulses allows meteorologists to obtain information about weather systems within the range of the radar.
