Empirical Earth · Radio & Long-Distance Signals

Why radar comes in networks, not one giant dish

The claim

“One giant radar could watch a flat country; why a network in every region?”

What is measured

A weather radar’s beam rides ~5.4 km above the ground at its 230 km limit because the Earth curves away, so it takes a network of ~159 NEXRAD (the Next Generation Weather Radar network) radars (and a grid of ATC radars) to cover the country, not one central dish. Power fights the inverse-square law; only height and more radars fight the curve.

What would show this is wrong

a single radar that, given enough power, tracks ground-level targets across an entire continent; or a radar beam that does not climb above low-altitude targets as range increases.

Sources

  1. NEXRAD weather-radar network & beam height. The U.S. NEXRAD network is ~159 S-band WSR-88D radars ranging to 230 km; at that range the 0.5° beam is ~5.4 km above ground because of Earth’s cu link
  2. Air-traffic-control radar ranges. Airport surveillance radar (ASR) reaches ~60 nmi (~110 km) and air-route surveillance radar (ARSR) ~200–250 nmi (~370–460 km); low targets fall below the ra link
  3. Weather-radar beams and the curve. Because of the Earth’s curvature, a NEXRAD (WSR-88D) beam at the lowest 0.5° elevation is roughly 5 km above ground by the 230-km Doppler range, so much of link
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