International Weather Radar Networking, 1992
Final Seminar of the COST Project 73

International Weather Radar Networking covers all aspects of the subject in a collection of contributions drawn from all over the world. Of particular interest are the papers describing work in Eastern Europe and papers reviewing of the achievements of the Commission of the European Communities COST-73 project.
During the last twenty years there has been a rapid growth in the number of digital radars deployed for operational use in Western Europe. There are now around 100, of which about half have a Doppler capability, providing wind as well as reflectivity information. The international exchange of the data from these systems promises a great enhancement of the benefits to weather forecasting and commercial users.
This volume reports work being undertaken to realize those benefits and points the way to future developments of radar technology.

List of Contents.- Session 1: Introduction.- Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organisation.- Ministry of University and Research, COST Senior Official of the Republic of Italy.- COST Senior Official Yugoslavaia.- What is COST?.- COST-73 — An Example of European Cooperation: Objectives and Organization of Work in the Project.- Session 2: Radar Systems and Precipitation Measurement.- Radar Measurement and Quality.- Using DSP32C Floating Point Signal Processor as a Radar Video Processor to Build a Modification Kit for Convential Analog Weather Radar.- On the Importance of Noise Figure in Reflectivity Radars.- Operational Radar Measurements of Rainfall: The Accuracy of Point Estimates of Rainfall Rate.- Progressive Method of Precipitation and Its Applications.- Use of Operational Radar Images for Investigations of Convective cells.- Operational Use of Doppler Radar in Veneto Region — Italy.- Analytic Method for Radar Horizon Computation.- Session 3: Telecommunications and displays.- Report by the Cost Project & Telecommunications Working Party.- Weather Radar Data Distribution and Presentation in Austria.- A Meteorological Information Processing System.- Strategy for a Low-COST COST-73 Display System.- External and Internal Distribution of Weather Radar Products at SMHI.- Marketing and Uses of Weather Radar in the UK Meteorological Office.- Session 4: Networking.- Weather radar Coverage and Networking Procedures.- Image Mosaics From Swedish Weather Radars.- A Suggested Architecture for Radar-Meteorological Operative Center.- Overview of Regional Radar Meteorological Activity in Czech Republic.- The Nordic Weather radar Network.- Overview of the National Weather Radar Activities in Romania.- Possible Solutions for an Italian radar Network.- Weather RadarNetwork in Croatia.- The UK Weather Radar Network — The Current Situation and Future Plans.- International Radar Products.- Experiments to Reveal Regions of Frequent Spurious Radar Echoes in COST-73 Composites.- Session 5: Nowcasting, Weather modification and other uses of radar data.- Potential Benefits of the Products of an Integrated European Weather Radar Network.- Forecasting and Weather Modification Uses of Radar Data.- Development of the Frontiers Precipitation Nowcasting System and Initial Forecast Results.- Nowcasting of Rain with Radar.- A Universal Coordinate System for Hail Suppression Activities in Croatia.- End User Requirements.- A Preliminary Analysis of the Hydrological Utilisation of the Frontiers System.- Development of a Weather Radar Based Rainfall Forecasting Technique for Real-Time Operational Use.- Precipitation Forecasting and Estimation Model Based on the Information Supplied by the Meteorological Radar.- First Results and Future Radar Development in Emilia Romagna Region — Italy.- Session 6: Advanced radar systems.- Advanced Radar Techniques.- Improved Characterisation of Precipitation Type and Intensity with Polarisation Diversity Radar.- Polarisation Radar Estimates of Rainfall: Correction of Errors due to the Bright Band and to Anomalous Propagation.- The DLR Polarimetric Doppler Radar: A Step Toward Operational Use.- Weather Radar System Requirements for Accurate Simultaneous Measurement of ZDR and DP.- Session 7: Weather radar in Europe.- The Recommendation of the COST-73 Project: A Way Ahead for Weather Radar in Europe.- List of Participants.- Seminar Programme.