The Case for Doppler Radars Along Our Hurricane Affected Coasts

Abstract

Hurricanes cause sporadic devastation along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts despite intensive research and a warning system that integrates satellite surveillance, aircraft re-connaissance, and a network of coastal radars. Part of the devastation must be attributed to inadequate public preparation and response and part to the limits of weather predictability, but part must be attributed to the use of an outmoded radar system. Although there now exist Doppler radars that provide real-time colored displays of the wind structure in storms, the radars that comprise the last line of defense in the national hurricane warning service provide no wind information. To support the contention that the coastal network should consist of Doppler radars, this paper develops a scenario in which a hurricane is approaching Galveston. A Doppler radar is imagined to be located at Galveston. The hurricane is assigned an average wind structure from which the field of wind components directed towards the radar is computed. After color coding the entire wind field, the corresponding color-coded radar display is obtained for a plausible distribution of radar echoes. The analysis shows that the radar would provide valuable data on the location and intensity of the hurricane-force winds.