Volumetric Imaging and Processing of Integrated Radar, known by the

acronym An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

VIPIR, is an analysis and display program for

Doppler weather radar A weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly pu ...

, created and sold by Baron Services. This software allows improved analysis of radar data for private users, in particular television stations, similar to the ''Weather Decision Support System'' program used by the

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

Technique

WSR-88D, or NEXRAD,

s scan at various elevations, creating a volume scan. This data can be manipulated in a three-dimensional view by VIPIR. The result of this process is a

three-dimensional In geometry, a three-dimensional space (3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a mathematical space in which three values (''coordinates'') are required to determine the position (geometry), position of a point (geometry), poi ...

image of the storm, which may be rotated and viewed from any angle. If imagery is zoomed in at an adequate range, actual

weather satellite A weather satellite or meteorological satellite is a type of Earth observation satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. Satellites are mainly of two types: polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asyn ...

data can be superimposed. VIPIR images can be constructed from multiple sources, including

and

NEXRAD NEXRAD or Nexrad (Next-Generation Radar) is a network of 159 high-resolution S-band pulse-Doppler radar, Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ...

. It is used by television

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

s to give a comprehensive view of weather, in particular severe weather events.

Algorithms

Included in VIPIR are algorithms that analyze

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

data in order to find signatures of severe thunderstorms, accumulation of rain or snow, and other weather patterns of interest.

Storm tracking

VIPIR automatically locates thunderstorms over the radar coverage area using algorithms analyzing the water content of each storm, its motion and wind fields. Storms are classified according to certain criteria and ranked. The ones capable of producing a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...

are flagged by red or yellow

cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

s according to the strength of the

vortex In fluid dynamics, a vortex (: vortices or vortexes) is a region in a fluid in which the flow revolves around an axis line, which may be straight or curved. Vortices form in stirred fluids, and may be observed in smoke rings, whirlpools in th ...

as defined by the tornado vortex signature criteria similar to those the

uses. To do this, it uses the presence of a BWER in

reflectivity The reflectance of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in Reflection (physics), reflecting radiant energy. It is the fraction of incident electromagnetic power that is reflected at the boundary. Reflectance is a component of the respon ...

and atmospheric rotation picked up by

Doppler The Doppler effect (also Doppler shift) is the change in the frequency of a wave in relation to an observer who is moving relative to the source of the wave. The ''Doppler effect'' is named after the physicist Christian Doppler, who described ...

weather radar A weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern w ...

Accumulations

VIPIR tracks snowfall/rainfall accumulations. It has an extrapolation feature to predict snowfall totals in excess of 24 hours in advance using meteorological computer model outputs. The algorithm, called ''Snow Machine'', forecasts several precipitation types: rain, sleet and wintry mix.

Baron Tornado Index

The BTI, a product that was recently introduced, is mainly used to determine the probability of the presence of a tornado or tornadoes inside a tornadic vortex signature on the rear flank of the storm, to better alert potential high risk areas for tornadoes and to easily track them. With the help of radar data, mesoscale models and algorithms, it is measured on a scale of 0 to 10. The higher the BTI value is, the more likely a tornado is on the ground. Shear markers from different colors are used with BTI values above 2. Yellow markers are used for values between 2 and 3.9, Orange markers are used for values between 4 and 6.9 and red markers are used for values over 7.

Notes and references

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External links

VIPIR Product PageAbout VIPIR
Radar meteorology Baron Services