What are the differences between the product type images shown here? New Software Deployed: Starting in May of 2008, NOAA's Radar Operation Center (ROC) started deploying a new build of software at Florida WSR88d radar sites. There is a significant improvement over older builds of the Radar Product Generator and Build 10. Build 10 is the first to offer "super-resolution" for reflectivity. The voxels have a resolution of 250m where older builds had a resolution of 1000m (1km). This improvement in resolution will allow better visualization of small structural features including hail columns and hooks. Full details are online here. Level II vs NIDS Level III: Level II images are shown with 128 colors instead of 15 providing more detail in intensity. This allows the ability to delineate certain phenomena (e.g. gust fronts, hook echoes) that are sometimes hard to see using NIDS Level III data. The Level II data is available in 0.5 dBZ increments, while NIDS Level III data is only available in 5.0 dBZ increments. Level II is commonly called high resolution Nexrad. We use both Level II and Level III data on this page, so you can take advantage of the higher resolution images. Base Reflectivity: Base Reflectivity is one of the basic quantities that Doppler radar measures. Color intensity corresponds to the amount of radiation that is scattered or reflected back to the radar by whatever targets are located in the radar beam at a given location. These targets can be hydrometeors (snow, rain drops, hail, cloud drops or ice particles) or other targets (dust, smoke, birds, airplanes, insects). Base and Radial Velocity: Base Velocity is the average radial velocity of the targets in the radar beam at a given location. Radial velocity is the relationship between the target's motion and the direction of the radar beam. Positive values (warm colors) denote out-bound velocities that are moving away from the radar. Negative values (cool colors) are in-bound velocities that are moving towards the radar. Base Spectrum Width: Spectrum Width depicts a measure of velocity dispersion. It provides a measure of the variability of the mean radial velocity estimates due to wind shear, turbulence, and/or the quality of the velocity samples. It is used to estimate turbulence associated with boundaries, thunderstorms, mesocyclones. Storm Total Rainfall Estimate: Storm Total Precipitation is an estimate of accumulated rainfall, continuously updated, since the last one-hour break in precipitation. This product is used to locate flood potential over urban or rural areas, estimate total basin runoff and provide rainfall accumulations for the duration of the event. 1 Hour Rainfall Estimate: One Hour Total Precipitation is an estimate of one-hour precipitation accumulation on a 1.1x1.1 nm grid. This product is useful for assessing rainfall intensities for flash flood warnings, urban flood statements and special weather statements. Composite Reflectivity: Composite Reflectivity displays the maximum reflectivities for each resolution grid box for all 16 of the elevation angles. It is used to observe the highest reflectivities in a storm from any scanned elevation angle, determine intensity trends and generate cross section through maximum reflectivity. Vertically Integrated Liquid: Vertically Integrated Liquid displays reflectivity data converted into liquid water equivalent via an empirically-derived relationship which assumes that all reflectivity returns are from liquid water. It is used to indicate presence and approximate size of hail, locate the most significant thunderstorms or areas of possible heavy rainfall. Rapid decrease in VIL values may signify the onset of wind damage. Echo Tops: Echo Tops displays the maximum height of precipitation echoes. The radar will not report echo tops below 5,000 feet or above 70,000 feet, and will only report those tops that are at a reflectivity of 18.5 dBZ or higher. In addition, the radar will not be able to see the tops of some storms very close to the radar as the maximum tilt angle of the radar (19.5 degrees) is not high enough to let the radar beam see the top of the storm. Clear Air versus Precipitiation Mode: In Clear Air mode the radar is in its most sensitive operation. This mode has the slowest antenna rotation rate which permits the radar to sample the atmosphere longer. This increased sampling increases the radar's sensitivity and ability to detect smaller objects in the atmosphere than in precipitation mode. A lot of what you will see in clear air mode will be airborne dust and particulate matter. In clear air mode, the radar products update every 10 minutes. When rain is occurring, the radar does not need to be as sensitive as rain provides plenty of returning signals. In Precipitation Mode, the radar products update every 6 minutes. The dBZ Scale: The dBZ scale is shown by the color scale on the left of the image. The dBZ values increase as the strength of the signal returned to the radar increases. Each reflectivity image you see includes one of two color scales. One scale represents dBZ values when the radar is in clear air mode (dBZ values from -28 to +28). The other scale represents dBZ values when the radar is in precipitation mode (dBZ values from 5 to 75). The scale of dBZ values is also related to the intensity of rainfall. Typically, light rain is occurring when the dBZ value reaches 20. The higher the dBZ, the stronger the rainrate.

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