TABLE OF CONTENTS The power of the modern Doppler weather radar to provide high-resolution three-dimensional pictures of the weather field in terms of numerous parameters and with a high degree of agility is being harnessed to great advantage in improving the safety and efficiency of aviation systems. Information derived from weather radars has been used for air traffic planning and control for a long time. However, the modern and futuristic aviation weather surveillance systems make use of the weather radar in a much more intimate way. This is done at two levels. First, the radars used for such systems are either optimised specifically with aviation use in mind, or are designed for multiple roles with significant importance given to aviation data product generation. Next, these radars, along with a number of other sensors, are integrated into the aviation weather surveillance system in such a way that the sensor data are available to the system continuously in real time or near-real time for processing, inference generation, communication to air traffic controllers and pilots, and decision-making regarding air traffic management and aviation facility operation. In many cases, the integration of the sensors is intimate enough to allow control of their operational modes and data formats according to the needs of the surveillance situation. In this chapter we concentrate on the first level, i.e. weather radars that are primarily or substantially designed for use as part of modern aviation weather surveillance systems.
The optimisation of weather radar systems for aviation use is carried out...
