Australia's weather radars
The majority of Australia's weather radars are operated by the Bureau of Meteorology, an executive agency of the Australian Government. The radar network is continually being upgraded with new technology such as doppler and dual polarisation to provide better now-casting. Doppler weather radars are able to detect the movement of precipitation, making it very useful in detecting damaging winds associated with precipitation, and determining if a thunderstorm has a rotating updraft, a key indicator of the presence of the most dangerous type of thunderstorm, a supercell.
The new dual polarisation radars give forecasters the ability to:
- detect debris in the atmosphere, leading to more accurate tornado warnings;
- distinguish between different precipitation types, leading to better estimations of hail size and severity;
- better identify areas of heavy rainfall, leading to more accurate flood warnings; and
- discern between precipitation and non-meteorological echoes such as chaff, birds, and insects.
The dual polarisation transition
The transition to polarimetric radars began in 2017 with the upgrade of 4 Meteor 1500 radars located in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Sydney. The network has further been enhanced through the installation of 8 new polarimetric Meteor 735 radars across WA, NSW & Victoria, and two polarimetric WRM200 radars manufactured by Vaisala, one to replace the radar in Dampier, WA which had been destroyed by severe tropical cyclone Damien in 2020, and one to replace an ageing radar near Gove in the Northern Territory. Nine new Meteor 1700s were also installed between 2021 and 2024, 7 located in Qld, and 2 in WA, all equipped with dual polarisation technology. All the radars with the model name 'Meteor' were manufactured by Selex ES, now Leonardo.Specifications are available for the Meteor, Meteor, and the Vaisala .
Future radar network upgrades
The BoM has plans to:- build a new radar in Tennant Creek
- build a new radar in SW Western Australia in the Manjimup-Pemberton region
- build a new radar in SW Queensland in the Quilpie region
- upgrade the Grafton Radar in the next 5-10 years to a dual-polarising doppler radar
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory is served by the Captains Flat radar, located in New South Wales.South Australia
Research Radars
Note:- Whilst the BoM may/may not own these radars, they are often involved with the radars for research applications.
| Name | Location | Elevation | Operational status | Radar model | IEEE Frequency Band | Doppler | Dual Pol | Notes |
| CPOL | 50m | Inactive | N/A | C | The data which CPOL has collected is used to study the microphysical and dynamic properties of thunderstorm convection in Darwin, Australia, enabling the improvement of atmospheric models' representations of the convection formed during the pre-monsoon buildup and active monsoon. | |||
| CP2 | 185.5m | Inactive | N/A | S & X | The CP2 Research radar was a 1970's era radar, which the BoM received as a gift from the NCAR in the United States. The BoM retrofitted it with modern parts which gave it the unique ability to collect data at two frequencies, S and X band. The upgrades also provided state of the art dual polarisation and doppler technologies. The CP in its title stands for cloud physics, and the radar has been used to research thunderstorms, drive improvements in rainfall measurements and hail detection and explore the potential for cloud seeding. | |||
| Ocean Pol | N/A | 22m | Active | N/A | C | This research radar is installed on the RV Investigator, an ocean research vessel. The radar collects data on research voyages, including trips to Antarctic waters, Heard Island and circumnavigations of Australia. | ||
| UQXPOL | N/A | N/A | Active | Furuno WR-2100 | X | This research radar is operated by the University of Queensland and has been involved with research to improve hail detection and hail size prediction algorithms, and also with research into bushfires and pyroconvection as part of a $1 million google.org philanthropic venture. | ||
| Monash University x-band | N/A | N/A | Active | Meteor 60DX | X |