Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology is set to upgrade its weather radar in Cairns, Queensland, with the installation of a new digital receiver and control system.
The upgrade will commence on May 22 and once complete, will improve severe storm prediction and cyclone forecasting, as well as the accuracy and reliability of the radar under severe weather conditions. During the upgrade, the radar will be offline for up to eight weeks.
During the radar outage period, up-to-date weather information will be available via the Bureau’s MetEye service, which provides publicly accessible images showing temperature, rain and wind information. Individuals can also obtain satellite images from the Himawari-8 satellite on the Bureau’s website. The Greenvale and Townsville radars also provide nearby coverage for the region.
The Cairns radar is 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.
This project is part of an ongoing improvement program to the Australian radar and observation network, with eight new radars, upgrades to 44 radars, almost 700 automatic weather stations and 384 flood warning network assets across the country.