Residents and industry in Darwin, Australia, will now have access to more reliable and up-to-date weather information, after the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM)’s completion of a significant upgrade to the Berrimah weather radar in Darwin, including installation of a new digital receiver and control system.
Shenagh Gamble, BoM’s hazard and preparedness manager – Northern Territory, said, “Accurate and timely weather information is critical for local residents and industry, including aviation and resources, in and around Darwin.
“The upgrades to the weather radar will assist the community to track rain, wind, storms and severe weather with increased confidence.”
Gamble said the radar upgrade will also help emergency services make informed time-critical decisions during severe weather events, helping to keep the community safe.
“The new technology in the Berrimah weather radar provides improved coverage for the north coast area of the Northern Territory – linking coverage between the Gove, Warruwi and Darwin (Berrimah) weather radars – and more comprehensive tropical cyclone and monsoon monitoring,” added Gamble.
Hobart weather radar
On October 3, BoM will commence upgrades to Hobart’s Mt Koonya weather radar, which will include installation of a new digital receiver and control system. To make these changes, the weather radar will be offline for up to eight weeks.
The upgraded radar system will improve tracking of winds, quality of rainfall images and predictions for severe storms.
The Berrimah and Hobart weather radar upgrades are part of an ongoing improvement program set to enhance Australia’s weather observation network of more than 11,000 assets including satellites, upper-atmosphere monitoring, automatic weather stations, ocean buoys and flood warning networks.