The Operational Weather Radar Network in Europe
Huuskonen, Asko ; Saltikoff, Elena ; Holleman, Iwan
The operational weather radar network in Europe covers more than 30 countries and contains more than 200 weather radars. The radar network is heterogeneous in hardware, signal processing, transmit/receive frequency, and scanning strategy, thus making it fundamentally different than the Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) network. Another difference is that the density of the European weather radar network is roughly twice that of the NEXRAD network. Within the European National Meteorological Services (EUMETNET), a grouping of services, the Operational Program for Exchange of Weather Radar Information (OPERA) has been working since 1999 on improving the harmonization of radars and their measurements. In addition, OPERA has facilitated and stimulated the exchange of radar data between its members, among others, by the development of a radar data information model and jointly agreed data formats. Since 2011, a radar data center ("Odyssey") has been in operation, producing network-wide radar mosaics from volumetric data. An essential part of the OPERA work is the documentation of the members' best practices in radar operation and data production and the making of joint recommendations: for example, on the interferences caused by other microwave sources and the disturbances caused by wind turbines. Hence, the expertise of the most experienced members is made available to all members supporting the development of the network as a whole. Recent work has produced reports on best practices for production of radar data, on quality indicators, and on experiences with the use of polarimetric radars. All of these reports and recommendations are publicly available on the OPERA website, for use by the wider meteorological community.
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