Citation

Novo S. Rev. Bras. Meteorol. 2008; 23(1): 41-50.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Sociedade Brasileira de Meteorologia)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

One of the main applications of the meteorological radar is the nowcasting (some tens of minutes to some hours forward) of convective precipitation events. It has a great importance since this is the space of time in which the numerical forecasting is less effective. Some of the nowcasting techniques reported in the last years are reviewed shortly, making emphasis in those that use only information from a conventional radar. A distinction is made among those that predict the total movement of the storms and those that allow distinguishing their internal movement, pointing out their advantages and disadvantages in concrete meteorological situations. It is presented, for a chosen case of study, simple applications of two of these techniques. Finally, the utility of the moving frame of reference technique for obtaining the not observed wind components starting from a single Doppler radar or even a conventional one, and its implications in the retrieval of thermodynamic magnitudes, is discussed.