WSR-57
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WSR-57 RADARs were the USA's main Weather Surveillance Radar for over 35 years<ref name="usatd">Weather service retires last of old radars. 4 Nov. 1999, 22:23 UTC. USA Today. 4 Apr. 2006 <http://www.usatoday.com/weather/wsr57.htm>.</ref>. The National Weather Service operated a network of this model radar across the country, watching for severe weather.
Contents |
History
The WSR-57 (Weather Surveillance Radar - 1957) was the first 'modern' radar. Initially commissioned at the Miami hurricane forecast center, the WSR-57 was installed in other parts of the CONUS. The WSR-57 only had coarse reflectivity and no velocity data available which made it extremely difficult to predict tornadoes<ref name="Stormwiki">http://stormwiki.unk.edu:16080/index.php/WSR-57</ref>.
The military designation for the WSR-57 was AN/FPS-41<ref name="amsrad">Roger C. Whiton, et al. "History of Operational Use of Weather Radar by U.S. Weather Services. Part I: The Pre-NEXRAD Era." Weather and Forecasting: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 219–243. 19 Feb. 1998. American Meteorological Society. 5 Apr. 2006 <http://ams.allenpress.com/amsonline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0434(1998)013%3C0219:HOOUOW%3E2.0.CO%3B2>.</ref>.
Click for NOAA.gov image of the WSR-57 antenna.
Noaa.gov also has interesting pictures of the Charleston WSR-57 radar image of Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
At the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Andrew in 1992 blew the WSR-57 dish off their roof as shown here.
128<ref>http://sysu1.wsicorp.com/unidata/intro.html</ref> of the WSR-57 and WSR-74 model radars were spread across the country as the National Weather Service's radar network until the 1990's. They were gradually replaced by the WSR-88D model (Weather Surveillance Radar - 1988, Doppler), constituting the NEXRAD network.
The last WSR-57 radar in the United States was turned off December 2, 1996<ref name="usatd" />.
Radar Sites
The 66<ref name="usatd" /> former sites of the WSR-57 include<ref name="amsrad" /> the following:
| Site | Commissioned | Decommissioned |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Miami (later Coral Gables), FL (MIA) | June 1959 | August 24, 1992 |
| 16. Charleston, SC<ref name="usatd" /> | 1959 | December 2, 1996 |
| Tampa, FL | 1960 | 1995 |
| Lake Charles, LA | ||
| Galveston, TX (HOU) | 1960 | April 1994 |
| (The first 31 were built before 1965. 14 were along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts.) | ||
| Wichita, KS | June 22, 1960 | April 20, 1994? |
| St. Louis, MO | July 1960 | 1994 |
| Garden City, KS | ||
| Grand Island, NE | ||
| (11 were in the Midwest.) | ||
| Detroit, MI | September 12, 1961 | June 19, 1993? |
| Sacramento, CA | Early 1960's | |
| Point Six Mountain near Missoula, MT | Early 1960's | |
| (3 were inland of the East Coast, and California and Montana had one each on mountaintops.) | ||
| Limon, CO | ||
| Brent, AL | ||
| Patuxent River Naval Air Station, MD | ||
| Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN | ||
| Amarillo, TX | ||
| (The late '60's saw 14 more built east of the Rockies.) | ||
| 66. Hondo, TX | July<ref>http://www.texasoutside.com/hondo/history1.htm</ref> 1971 | 1995? |
Radar Properties
- The radar uses a wavelength of 10.3 cm<ref name="Sirvatka">Paul Sirvatka. "WSR - Weather Surveillance Radar." Radar. College of DuPage. 4 Apr. 2006 <http://weather.cod.edu/sirvatka/radar.html>.</ref>. This corresponds to an operating frequency of 2890 MHz<ref name="NTIA">Table 4 in the NTIA report at http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/pub/oprad/sect7.pdf</ref>. This frequency is in the S band, which is also used by today's weather radar network.
- WSR-57 radars had the following interesting statistics:<ref name="Sirvatka" />
- Dish diameter: 12 feet
- Power output: 410,000 watts
- Maximum range: 915 km (494 nm)
References
<references/>
For more information, the following is a thorough history of the subject -
Roger C. Whiton, et al. "History of Operational Use of Weather Radar by U.S. Weather Services. Part I: The Pre-NEXRAD Era." Weather and Forecasting: Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 219–243. 19 Feb. 1998. American Meteorological Society. 5 Apr. 2006 <http://ams.allenpress.com/amsonline/?request=get-document&doi=10.1175%2F1520-0434(1998)013%3C0219:HOOUOW%3E2.0.CO%3B2>.