Weather radar, a primary means of detecting precipitation, is one of the main tools for monitoring and early warning of severe convective weather (hail, gale, tornado and flash flood). China's new generation weather radar is of Doppler, including S-band (wavelength of about 10cm), C-band (wavelength of about 5cm) and X-band (wavelength of about 3cm).The operational radars are mainly in S-band and C-band, while in particular cases X-band radars are applied to the detection of blind areas subject to terrain effects and of local weather conditions. Weather radars emit electromagnetic waves in the pulse form. When the electromagnetic pulse encounters precipitation (raindrop, snowflake, hail, etc.), most of the energy continues to move forward, but a small fraction of the energy is scattered in all directions by the precipitation matter, of which the backscattered energy is back to the radar antenna and received by the radar. The characteristics of the precipitation system (precipitation intensity, accompanied with or without hail, tornado or gale) are determined based on the radar echoes. In addition to the intensity of radar echoes, the new generation weather radar measures the movement speed of a precipitation target along the radial direction of the radar (called radial velocity) and the velocity spectral width (a measure of velocity fluctuation). The weather radar data provided in this website are mainly Doppler radar-based ones and images obtained from China's new generation weather radar (CINRAD) network.

Weather radar, a primary means of detecting precipitation, is one of the main tools for monitoring and early warning of severe convective weather (hail, gale, tornado and flash flood). China's new generation weather radar is of Doppler, including S-band (wavelength of about 10cm), C-band (wavelength of about 5cm) and X-band (wavelength of about 3cm).The operational radars are mainly in S-band and C-band…