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Misc Summer Sizzlin Whamby Thread

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NoSnowATL said:
Yea the cutoff was amazing in a bad way. That snow/ rain line stopped about 10 miles to my west and didn’t move. We seriously have 32.4-33.0 rain for about 6 hrs. So I’m desperate for snow.


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Those weather set-ups makes you want to take your shirt off LOL
 
NoSnowATL said:
Yea the cutoff was amazing in a bad way. That snow/ rain line stopped about 10 miles to my west and didn’t move. We seriously have 32.4-33.0 rain for about 6 hrs. So I’m desperate for snow.


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That on top of last year's "hurry up and no" winter
 
Tagat said:
I was just curious be cause if you watch the loop it is slowly moving south.
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Could be anything from bugs, to birds or bats or some moisture in a band of clouds. The radar normally goes into "clear air mode" when no precip is detected which makes it more sensitive to picking up bugs or light snowfall. Now I dont know why they do it. Maybe it saves electricity or something.
 
Arcc said:
Could be anything from bugs, to birds or bats or some moisture in a band of clouds. The radar normally goes into "clear air mode" when no precip is detected which makes it more sensitive to picking up bugs or light snowfall. Now I dont know why they do it. Maybe it saves electricity or something.
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Yeah, stable layer traps things in at night so it could easily trap in dust, even bugs4F5E17E2-D6D3-447C-92D2-ADF78F7F837F.jpeg
 
Clear air mode serves a few useful purposes. It is often used when no significant precipitation echoes are on radar, when light precipitation is on radar, or when the detection of subtle boundaries in the troposphere is desired.

During clear air mode, the radar antenna ROTATES MORE SLOWLY. This allows for a finer resolution and heightened sensitivity of the radar. The goal of clear air mode is to detect "clear air echoes". Clear air echoes include dust, insects, birds, and even subtle reflection differences produced along boundaries in the troposphere due to temperature and moisture gradients. Clear air returns (returns that would not show on precipitation mode) are typically 5 dBZ or less.

Only the lowest tilt angles are used in clear air mode. This is because most clear air returns are in the lower troposphere. Less actual tilt scans compensates for the fact that each tilt scan takes much longer in clear air mode (remember the antenna is rotating more slowly). Even though there are less tilt scans to make up a volume scan, a clear air volume scan still takes twice as long as a precipitation mode volume scan since the antenna rotates much more slowly to catch the fine details in the troposphere. Also in clear air mode the PRF is decreased. This allows the radar to detect echoes further from the radar site but also contributes to tilt scans taking longer and an increase of velocity aliasing.

The precipitation particles clear air mode is used to detect are primarily drizzle and light snow. Since the antenna rotates much faster in precipitation mode, the reduced sensitivity does not allow the radar to detect fine particles of precipitation or particles of precipitation that have minimal reflections. Ice is less reflective than water with respect to radar energy, thus a finer resolution of the radar beam is needed in order to detect small snow crystals. Clear air mode can also be used to locate frontal boundaries and mesoscale frontal boundaries such as outflow boundaries, sea breeze fronts and drylines. A sharp moisture and/or temperature gradient in the troposphere sets up an interface of higher reflectivity (an example is to think of skipping rocks on water, the rock is reflective as it hits the boundary between the air and water). In a case where rapid refraction occurs, some of the energy will backscatter. Also, convergenceoccurs along frontal boundaries. Dust and insects tend to convergence along synoptic and mesoscale frontal boundaries. These increased regions of bugs and dust allow for a higher return on clear air mode thus allowing for the detection of these boundaries. Bird migrations can also be detected in clear air mode.
 
The next person who posts about the NAO being negative during the summer is going to be sentenced to 12 straight hours of hearing Baby Shark do do do do do.....
 
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