Jump to content
Science Forums

Recommended Posts

Posted

I noticed something very similar to this just not as pretty on the weather network directly above riding mountain national park periodically throughout the summer... But i just dismissed it as a mistake or damaged weather station... Nothing was going on in the park so i am assuming it was nothing important. The pictures shown in mexico are much prettier though, they were kinda just straight lines in a circle pattern here.

Posted

The linked-to YouTube video states that the image appeared briefly on a The Weather Chanel website. The legend shows that it is intended to indicate rainfall. Various paranormal and conspiracy theory forums note that no precipitation was measured in the parts of Mexico where the image indicates heavy rainfall was occurring, so this video appears to capture some sort of RADAR imaging system malfunction.

 

I’ve seen wispy spiral patterns in old non-computerized airborn RADAR system, which I understood to be an artifact common to interference from similar RADAR systems on nearby aircraft. A quick google search finds an illustration and text matching my recollection in this 1990 RADAR and ARPA manual. My guess is that the much more sophisticated computerized RADAR image generating systems used to provide realtime precipitation maps like The Weather Chanel’s also exhibit this spiral pattern, but with much more dramatic and colorful artifacts.

 

A professional familiar with these systems could likely shed more light on the subject, but as most discussion of it appears to be among the paranormal and conspiracy theory community, which I doubt would be very friendly and accepting of comments from such folk, I’d be surprised if any bothered posting. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and an expert will post something here.

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

It's obviously an artefact of the generation of the composite CGI because the pattern only appears in the circle of the combined radar image and not elsewhere.

 

Similar linear artefacts appear like lighthouse beams in otherwise clear skies.

post-2995-0-24144200-1353330371_thumb.jpg

post-2995-0-63243000-1353330393_thumb.jpg

Posted (edited)

I just captured those two images above and, considering that the wind directions are indicated at the various weather stations, the overall doppler image appears to be off center and skewed towards the left/west side.

Edited by LaurieAG

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...