The Technology of the Doppler Radar, the Doppler Effect, and Christian Doppler

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  • Topic: Radar, Doppler effect, Weather radar
  • Pages : 3 (727 words )
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  • Published : May 20, 2012
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Nicole Dickerson

Dr. Ortloff

Intermediate Computer Literacy

September 29, 2011


Radar[1] hasn’t always been used for weather. When people first started using radars during World War II it was to provide information about aerial attacks heading towards them. Another way people were using radar was to try to prevent collisions like the Titanic hitting the ice burg and sinking. It wasn’t until after all of this that weather radar was finally developed.

Weather radar is being used to detect rain and hail in advance so that the meteorologist can give a warning of any severe weather that may be heading to your area. Regular radar pretty much just lets you know how much precipitation is in the clouds. Doppler radar is much more advanced than this. Doppler radar can tell if the rain is moving towards or away from the radar, which also tells the meteorologist that there is wind moving around in the clouds (Hatheway, Becca. “Weather Radar”)

The way that a radar works is a transmitter will send pulses out and then waves or echoes will be transmitted back on to a screen to show if and where an object is in relation to the radar. The reason why the computer is able to know how far away an object is; is by measuring how long it takes for radar waves to come back to transmitter. This method is useful to both the military and the meteorologist. The military is able to benefit from it because they can see their opponents before it’s too late. The meteorologist benefit in the fact that they are able to advise the local community of when to be prepared for any kind of rain or bad weather that may be heading their way such as tornados.

The Doppler Effect comes into effect when trying to find out if there is a tornado in the nearby area. The Doppler Effect is named after Austrian physicist Christian Doppler. Christian Doppler was born in 1803 in...
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