Radar Was An Accident

Radar and penicillin actually have something in common- They were both discovered by accident

Radar, which stands for RAdio Detection And Ranging was developed for military purposes during W.W. II.

The British and US Military used Radar to locate ships and airplanes. However, annoying blips were consistentlyappearing on the radar screen. It turned out, these annoying radar returns were raindrops.

Well someone saw this hindrance as a wonderful opportunity. In 1957, the US Government created the WSR-57 (weather surveillance, 1957) which became the primary radar for the weather service for nearly 40 years.1

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/nws/wea01228.htm

Advances in technology helped usher in the WSR-88D, D for Doppler. Also known as NexRad for "Next Generation Radar", and this is what meteorologists currently use to help save lives and predict your weather.

The NexRad has 750,000 Watts of power and a 460 Km range. Most notably, improved radar has allowed meteorologists to see wind fields, determine precipitation rates and most importantly identify potential tornadic cells.

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/nssl/nssl0022.htm

This is a picture of the very first Doppler radar located in Norman, Oklahoma. This is where the NSSL or National Severe Storms Laboratory is located, and this odd looking beast helped lead to developing the WSR-88D, which is in use by your local National Weather Service.

The expensive radar equipment is protected by the sphere shaped cover. On the inside it looks similar to this:

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/nssl/nssl0025.htm

To check out the Nexrad WSR-88 Doppler radar nearest you click below:

http://www.intellicast.com/LocalWeather/World/UnitedStates/BaseReflectivity/

If you think this is all very cool, but you wanna know how it works, then click next...

1 The Handy Weather Answer Book