Fox Live Power Doppler Radar

About Fox Live Power Doppler
1 Million Watt Weather Radar
Last Edited: Wednesday, 27 Jun 2007, 1:55 PM CDT
Created: Wednesday, 27 Jun 2007, 1:55 PM CDT


Fox Live Power Doppler is the newest tool Fox Chicago Meteorologists can use to track severe weather moving through our area.

Fox Live Power Doppler has several advantages compared to traditional doppler weather radar - primarily, it's range, speed, height and dual-polarity technology.

Fox Live Power Doppler operates at 1 million watts of power. That is important because weaker radar systems will experience a loss of signal strength called attenuation when tracking severe storms.

Fox Live Power Doppler has the highest power level available in the world today.

Fox Live Power Doppler is mounted on top of the 200' high water tower in the City of Lockport. That height decreases the interference known as ground clutter and along with the 1 million watts of power helps Fox Live Power Doppler achieve a range of more than 300 miles.

Severe storms can move very quickly, so it is a huge advantage that Fox Live Power Doppler can rotate at up to 6 revolutions per minute. That gives Fox Chicago the ability to give you a new image of heavy rain and dangerous weather every 10 seconds.

Finally, Fox Live Power Doppler features the state-of-the-art dual pol technology.

Dual pol, also known as polarimetric, radar is the latest innovation in radar meteorology.

Fox Live Power Doppler can send out two beams on energy - one vertically oriented and one horizontally oriented. This ability allows our radar to give us a much more accurate measurement of rainfall droplet size and hail.

Fox Live Power Doppler is tied in with MAX - our storm analysis tool. MAX uses special algorithims to detect severe storms, with high winds, hail, and damaging winds.

MAX gives Fox Chicago Meteorologists advance warning of severe storms as they are developing.

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