FURUNO's X-Band Weather Radar Systems

Recent serious threats to civilian lives due to localized heavy rains, larger tropical cyclones and other meteorological events have been increasing.

FURUNO, in close collaboration with many universities and other business organizations has developed Radar solutions for meteorological monitoring and analysis – including hail, ice, rain, snow, dust, volcanic ash detection.

This technology provides urban-scale warnings and forecasts for a range of public and private decision-makers that result in measurable benefit for public safety and the economy.

Furuno weather radars provide more detailed information to forecasters, including rainfall totals, better rainfall rates, possible rotation in clouds, hail formation and other weather features.

FURUNO's high resolution, compact X-band Doppler Weather Radar has proven essential for forecasting localized weather disturbances and other specialized applications including volcanic ash detection.

Also, researchers have used the WR2100 to provide unique, detailed information of bush fire plumes and wind speed/direction within the fire activity (RHI Scan showing horizontal and differential reflectivity).

With new tools and solutions specifically designed for weather forecasting and observation, FURUNO’s objective is to provide safety to individuals and their property by presenting highly detailed information of potential meteorological events.

A radar capable of understanding extreme weather better than any other

There are several differing opinions globally on how to approach problems caused by extreme weather. These include short localized rainstorms, snowstorms, tornadoes, landslides, and other life threatening phenomena that are increasing worldwide. Subsequently the urgent need for more localized weather forecasting is required to protect human life and assets against these unexpected natural disasters.

Among the lightest and most compact Doppler Weather Radars: Select from two models

FURUNO, which maintains the leading market share in marine Radar now presents its two X band radars systems; the single polarimetric WR110 model and the dual polarimetric WR2120 model.

FURUNO X-band Radars supplement S/C-band long range radar systems

While S/C-band Radars sweep the higher elevations for longer range surveillance, FURUNO X band Radars detect local short range weather changes with higher precision in lower elevation areas where large S/C band Radars cannot access.

Results also show that FURUNO Triple-Doppler weather radars estimate rainfall intensity more precisely than C-Band radar. The Furuno system shows good regression coefficients when compared to the rain collected gauge data. Identifying good regression coefficients is attributed to the relative proximity (short range) of the radar installations and their maximum data selections within overlapped areas.

Multi-Radar system for wide areas and blind area coverage

By creating a “Multi-Radar system” consisting of synchronizing several WR2120 and WR110 Radars, real-time 3D monitoring of meteorological phenomena can be achieved with an affordable and reasonable investment.

When installed in the same area the Radars observation data can be combined, further increasing accuracy, providing vector Doppler velocities, and enhanced 3-dimensional imaging.

By increasing the number of FURUNO X-Band Radars it is possible to cover a wider area.

Various integration options

Various data formats are available, including the following major weather software packages.

- Vaisla IRIS Focus

- Baron Lynx

Data Formats: CF/Radial, Opera Odim HDF5, CF-compliant NetCDF (rain only) Grib2 (rain only), NEXRAD Level2

Further Information

Click here to visit the manufacturers website for further information, case studies, whitepaper, measurement results, videos, installation & application examples.

Downloads:

WR2120 Brochure

WR110 Brochure

Case Studies