Doppler Radar for USA Weather Surveillance

Weather radar had its beginnings at the end of Word War II when it was noticed that storms clutter radar displays meant to reveal enemy aircraft. Thus radar meteorology was born. Until the sixties only the return power from weather tracers was measured which offered the first glimpses into precipitation structure hidden inside clouds. Possibilities opened up to recognize hail storms, regions of tornadoes (i.e., hook echoes), the melting zone in stratiform precipitation, and even determine precipitation rates at the ground, albeit with considerable uncertainty.