WSR-57 radars were the USA's main weather surveillance

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

for over 35 years. The

National Weather Service The National Weather Service (NWS) is an Government agency, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that is tasked with providing weather forecasts, warnings of hazardous weather, and other weathe ...

operated a network of this model radar across the country, watching for severe weather.

History

The WSR-57 (Weather Surveillance Radar - 1957) was the first 'modern' weather radar. Initially commissioned at the Miami Hurricane Forecast Center, the WSR-57 was installed in other parts of the CONUS (continental United States). The WSR-57 was the first generation of radars designed expressly for a national warning network. The WSR-57 was designed in 1957 by Dewey Soltow using World War II technology. It gave only coarse reflectivity data and no velocity data, which made it extremely difficult to predict tornadoes. Weather systems were traced across the radar screen using grease pencils. Forecasters had to manually turn a crank to adjust the radar's scan elevation, and needed considerable skill to judge the intensity of storms based on green blotches on the radar scope. The military designation for the WSR-57 is AN/FPS-41.

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

has pictures of the Charleston, SC
WSR-57 radar image
of the 1989

Hurricane Hugo Hurricane Hugo was a powerful Cape Verde tropical cyclone that inflicted widespread damage across the northeastern Caribbean and the Southeastern United States in September 1989. Across its track, Hugo affected approximately 2 million peop ...

. A WSR-57 dish, located on the roof of the

National Hurricane Center The National Hurricane Center (NHC) is the division of the United States' NOAA/National Weather Service responsible for tracking and predicting tropical weather systems between the Prime Meridian and the 140th meridian west poleward to the 3 ...

(NHC), was blown away by

Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was a very powerful and destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck the Bahamas, Florida, and Louisiana in August 1992. It is the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures damaged ...

. The NHC report on Hurricane Andrew shows its last radar image, as well as images from nearby WSR-88D radars. As the network of WSR-57 radars aged, some were replaced with

WSR-74 WSR-74 radars were Weather Surveillance Radars designed in 1974 for the National Weather Service. They were added to the existing network of the WSR-57 model to improve forecasts and severe weather warnings. Some have been sold to other countries ...

S models of similar performance but with better reliability. WSR-57 operators sometimes had to scramble for spare parts no longer manufactured in this country. 128 of the WSR-57 and

model radars were spread across the country as the National Weather Service's radar network until the 1990s. The WSR-57 radars were gradually replaced by the Weather Surveillance Radar - 1988, Doppler, WSR-88D, which NOAA named the

NEXRAD NEXRAD or Nexrad (Next-Generation Radar) is a network of 160 high-resolution S-band Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service (NWS), an agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the United ...

network. The last WSR-57 radar in the United States was decommissioned on December 2, 1996.

Radar sites

The 66 former sites of the WSR-57 include the following:

Radar properties

Last radar images WSR Miami Hurricane Andrew-1992

* The radar uses a wavelength of 10.3 cm. This corresponds to an operating frequency of 2890 MHz. This frequency is in the

S band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the convention ...

, which is also used by today's weather radar network. * WSR-57 radars had the following interesting statistics: ** Dish diameter: ** Power output: 410,000 watts ** Maximum range: 915 km (494 nm)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wsr-57 National Weather Service weather radars 1957 meteorology Radars of the United States Air Force Military electronics of the United States Military equipment introduced in the 1950s