The King City weather radar station (

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

site identifier CASKR (''CWKR'' prior to 2021)) is a

weather radar Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern weather radars are mostly puls ...

located in King City,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is operated by

Environment Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; french: Environnement et Changement climatique Canada),Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment ( ...

and is part of the

Canadian weather radar network The Canadian weather radar network consists of 31 weather radars spanning Canada's most populated regions. Their primary purpose is the early detection of precipitation, its motion and the threat it poses to life and property. Each had until 2018 ...

, for which it is the primary

research station Research stations are facilities where scientific investigation, collection, analysis and experimentation occurs. A research station is a facility that is built for the purpose of conducting scientific research. There are also many types of resear ...

. The 16.45 hectare site is listed at an elevation of 360 m, and the tower is 27 m tall. Mounted on the tower was a 5 cm weather radar, and a C-band dual-polarization radar system, installed at the site in 2004, which was replaced during the modernization program of

of 2021 by an

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 ...

(10 cm), dual-polarization radar.

Research

The station serves a number of research roles, and collects data to fulfill those observational needs. It is "responsible for providing national leadership on radar meteorology research applications". In 1984, the Research Directorate of the

Atmospheric Environment Service The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC; french: Service météorologique du Canada – SMC) is a division of Environment and Climate Change Canada, which primarily provides public meteorological information and weather forecasts and warnings o ...

established the first Canadian

with Doppler capability in King City. In 2004, a dual-polarization radar was installed for further research. These systems are used for predictive purposes, and the data collected is used for weather forecasts for the

Greater Toronto Area The Greater Toronto Area, commonly referred to as the GTA, includes the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities of Durham, Halton, Peel, and York. In total, the region contains 25 urban, suburban, and rural municipalities. The Greater T ...

and the

Golden Horseshoe The Golden Horseshoe is a secondary region of Southern Ontario, Canada, which lies at the western end of Lake Ontario, with outer boundaries stretching south to Lake Erie and north to Lake Scugog, Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. The r ...

. Further, under the auspices of the Cloud Physics and Severe Weather Research Section of Environment Canada, the King Doppler Weather Radar Research Facility collects data for research. The radar can be useful for observing

bird migration Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by ...

patterns, especially when data is taken in aggregate with that of other radar stations. Current active research in dual-polarization radar includes winter precipitation, detection and short-term forecasting of high-impact weather events, quantitative precipitation estimation, satellite validation, and particle type identification.

Equipment

The WSR82D radar installed in 1982 had a fiberglass laminate radome, and a parabolic reflector with a diameter of 6.1m and linear horizontal polarisation. Its

gain Gain or GAIN may refer to: Science and technology * Gain (electronics), an electronics and signal processing term * Antenna gain * Gain (laser), the amplification involved in laser emission * Gain (projection screens) * Information gain in de ...

was 48 dB. The radar emitted a 260 kW beam with a

frequency Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit of time. It is also occasionally referred to as ''temporal frequency'' for clarity, and is distinct from ''angular frequency''. Frequency is measured in hertz (Hz) which is eq ...

of 5625 MHz and

wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tro ...

of 5.33 cm having a

beam width The beam diameter or beam width of an electromagnetic beam is the diameter along any specified line that is perpendicular to the beam axis and intersects it. Since beams typically do not have sharp edges, the diameter can be defined in many differ ...

of 0.65 degrees. In conventional operation, it had a

pulse duration In signal processing and telecommunication, pulse duration is the interval between the time, during the first transition, that the amplitude of the pulse reaches a specified fraction (level) of its final amplitude, and the time the pulse amplitude ...

of 2µs,

pulse repetition frequency The pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is the number of pulses of a repeating signal in a specific time unit. The term is used within a number of technical disciplines, notably radar. In radar, a radio signal of a particular carrier frequency is tu ...

of 250 pulses per second, and performed 6.0 scanning rotations per minute. In Doppler operation, it had a pulse duration of 0.5µs, alternating pulse repetition frequencies of 892 and 1190 pulses per second, and a scan rate of 0.75 rotations per minute. In long-range Doppler operation, a pulse repetition frequency of 650 pulses per second and a scan rate of 2 rotations per minute were used. It was replaced in 2004 by a similar radar but with

dual polarization Weather radar, also called weather surveillance radar (WSR) and Doppler weather radar, is a type of radar used to locate precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type (rain, snow, hail etc.). Modern wea ...

capabilities. During the modernization program of

, it is being replaced again on the same site in the spring of 2021 by an

and dual-polarization radar with an estimated construction date from March to June. This new radar uses a

klystron A klystron is a specialized linear-beam vacuum tube, invented in 1937 by American electrical engineers Russell and Sigurd Varian,Pond, Norman H. "The Tube Guys". Russ Cochran, 2008 p.31-40 which is used as an amplifier for high radio frequenci ...

, instead of a

magnetron The cavity magnetron is a high-power vacuum tube used in early radar systems and currently in microwave ovens and linear particle accelerators. It generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field while ...

, and has: * Frequency : 2.7 - 2.9 GHz *

Pulse repetition frequency The pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is the number of pulses of a repeating signal in a specific time unit. The term is used within a number of technical disciplines, notably radar. In radar, a radio signal of a particular carrier frequency is tu ...

(PRF): 250 – 2000 Hz * Pulse length (τ): 0.4 µs ... 4.5 µs * Peak power: 750 kW * Doppler range: 240 km * Reflectivity normal range: 300 km * maximum range: 600 km * Velocity resolution : ± 146 m/s * Antenna diameter: 8.5 m * Beamwidth : < 1° * Rotation: 6 min⁻¹

Notes

References

* * * * *

External links

Real time CWKR data
from Environment Canada {{Meteorological equipment Meteorological stations Meteorological Service of Canada Weather radars Buildings and structures in King, Ontario Year of establishment missing

Research

Equipment

Notes

References

Further reading

External links