Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) completed the installation of its new Gove weather radar, providing communities in the East Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory with more reliable and up-to-date weather information.
The new dual-polarized Doppler radar will help forecasters observe rainfall and wind conditions in real time across large areas.
Jude Scott, senior officer for the Northern Territory, BoM, said, “The Gove weather radar will provide better image resolution, better visibility of weather systems and less image interference. It will improve the image resolution between rain and hail, and it will show higher quality images during intense rain and storms. The upgraded radar will benefit communities, emergency services and local industry across East Arnhem Land.”
Radar data will feed into the Bureau’s models and forecasts to deliver better rainfall and flood warnings; estimates of accumulated rainfall and stored soil moisture; and short-term forecasts of rainfall and severe weather.
BoM’s radars are part of a comprehensive weather observation network of more than 11,000 assets including satellites, upper atmosphere monitoring, automatic weather stations, ocean buoys and flood warning networks.
Images from the upgraded radar are now live on the Bureau’s website or the BOM Weather app.