Brisbane Weather Radar down...

[River]

Noticed early Saturday that the new higher resolution weather radar sited at Mt Stapylton just south of Brisbane and that only became operational a few weeks back had "fell over"

 

 

Was still down Sunday too so they are back to using the old radar unit sited west of Brisbane at Marburg.

 

Here's a low quality image of what they were showing for Saturday/Sunday... Looks like the inside of a 'cyclone'...

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

We should all be glad that we have the 'simple' radar images that are available. I guess one day they will try and make us pay for even that. Paying our taxes one would hope they remain 'free'.

 

 

[River]

We should all be glad that we have the 'simple' radar images that are available. I guess one day they will try and make us pay for even that. Paying our taxes one would hope they remain 'free'.

 

 

 

G'day Darren, what has surprised me is it appears our air traffic controllers also use this free radar as their primary use too.

 

Quite some time back I saw the Brisbane BoM (Weather boys ) using a very high quality three-dimensional weather radar. Very very impressive with capability of moving the image around to any viewing angle in 3D and colour coded and with amazing real time detail into a storm or rain lines, etc…

 

I was under the impression that this is what was fed to the professional operators of the likes of air traffic control and other specialises agencies but appears this radar ‘went west’…

 

With the current weather radars giving real time updates only every 10 minutes, when there is a serve fast moving storm especially near major airfields that 10 minute time delay can cause quite a serious weather miss-reading as has happened at Coolangatta airfield (Gold Coast) last year, I think… and no doubt elsewhere too.

 

As for free ongoing service – totally agree, with the taxes we all pay the weather radar is and should remain to be a free essential service…

 

Cheers,

 

 

[Ultralights]

As for free ongoing service – totally agree, with the taxes we all

pay the weather radar is and should remain to be a free essential

 

service…

 

the same could be said for our airports, which the taxpayer owned....

 

and some toll roads. dont get me started on medical and

 

healthcare! have you ever had to pay an ambulance bill for

 

150Km of travel!!!

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Ha ha. Talk to Macquarie Bank. They own most of our lives these days. Back on topic River, I think too many people depend on it for it to be taken away. But you are quite correct, a ten minute delay can make a world of difference. I love watching the weather radar when there is a huge storm brewing!!:)

 

 

[Paul Willett]

The RAPIC that is used in the ATC Centres is not as good as the free BOM Weather radar - it is not configurable to be useful, and we really need it during the storm season. You might be interested to know that we do not have access to the Mt Staplyton Radar (which is a Doppler Radar).

 

Gold Coast Airport have no weather radar feed, unless they use a PC to connect to the BOM Website.

 

The RAPIC is centred on either Marburg or Brisbane, but this information does not overlay on to the traffic picture. Frankly it is disgraceful.

 

You might also be surprised to learn that the BN Airport WX Radar gets turned off each morning and afternoon (about when the Summer TS build up) so that it can be used to track weather ballons.

 

Also, ATC are not permitted to vector aircraft around weather due to the limitations of these displays, but also have the responsibiilty when vectoring to avoid areas of known weather!

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

Disgraceful really in this day and age