Volumetric Imaging and Processing of Integrated Radar, known by the

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in '' NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, a ...

VIPIR, is an analysis and display program for

Doppler weather radar 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 pulse- ...

, 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 agency of the United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weather-related products to organizations and the public for the ...

Technique

WSR-88D, or NEXRAD, Doppler radars 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 Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informal ...

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 can be polar orbiting (covering the entire Earth asynchronously), or ...

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 160 high-resolution S-band Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the United ...

. 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 atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while th ...

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 under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hai ...

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 both the surface of the 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, alt ...

are flagged by red or yellow

cylinder A cylinder (from ) 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 infi ...

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 t ...

as defined by the

tornado vortex signature A tornadic vortex signature, abbreviated TVS, is a Pulse-Doppler radar weather radar detected rotation algorithm that indicates the likely presence of a strong mesocyclone that is in some stage of tornadogenesis. It may give meteorologists the abil ...

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 reflecting radiant energy. It is the fraction of incident electromagnetic power that is reflected at the boundary. Reflectance is a component of the response of the electroni ...

and atmospheric rotation picked up by Doppler

weather radar 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 puls ...

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