Mechatronic Concepts of Automated Weather Radars (a survey)

Quantification of precipitation is currently an important factor for agriculture but also for flood forecasting. In meteorology there is a strong interest in automatic stations and in replacing manually operated precipitation gauges with automated ones. This article mainly deals with measuring precipitation using radar (Radio Detection and Ranging). Standard weather radars can measure precipitation in a large territory, but to measure the local precipitation a vertically pointing radar is more suited. These types of radars use the Doppler effect to measure the speed of falling drops. The article describes some existing radar units, which allow automatic measurement of the present local rainfall. The common principles and methods for measuring precipitation will also be shown.