Helsinki Gets New Snow Radar

The University of Helsinki, famous for their weather radar research, has acquired a new "polarimetric" weather radar, according to EurekAlert. This type of radar sends out and receives two radar signals, which enables software to determine whether precipitation is rain, ice or snow by looking at the shape of the precipitation (large raindrops are oblate (flattened) but hail is round, for example). Big photos of the Helsinki radar installation, and additional information in Finnish, can be found here.

Radars used commercially in the United States cannot show winter precipitation delineation, but similar research is being done at the University of Oklahoma, and you can see case studies here. Additional research, specifically on hail, is being conducted by the Colorado State (see case studies here and at the bottom of this page).

The U.S. National Severe Storms Laboratory's
Cimarron polarimetric radar was
in operation from 1998 to 2004.

AccuWeather.com uses a different method -- proprietary algorithms which examine the state of the atmosphere then color radar data based on that result, to create the AccuWeather.com Snow/Ice/Rain Radar (PREMIUM | PRO).