Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology is replacing its secondary Brisbane (Marburg) weather radar with dual-polarized Doppler technology.
Marburg will be fitted with the same technology that the primary Mt Stapylton radar uses for observing real-time rainfall and wind conditions across large areas. Works will commence on April 26, 2023, with the Marburg radar offline for approximately six months.
During this time, the existing Mt Stapylton weather radar will continue to provide coverage and a temporary radar at Brisbane Airport will serve as an additional weather radar for the region. The Bureau’s MetEye service also provides publicly accessible images showing temperature, rain and wind information. The community can also access satellite images from the Himawari-8 satellite on the Bureau’s website, showing cloud cover and lightning strikes.
Dr Peter Stone, chief customer officer, Bureau of Meteorology, explained, “The Marburg radar is one part of a comprehensive weather observation network of more than 11,000 assets including satellites, upper atmosphere monitoring, automatic weather stations, ocean buoys and flood warning networks.”
During the planned outage period, up-to-date forecasts and warnings will continue to be published on the Bureau’s website and on the BOM Weather app.