Tony Quayle / Project Director / Meteorological Service of New Zealand / , New Zealand Robert Ireland / Regional Manager, APAC / Vaisala / Melbourne, Australia Meteorological Service of New Zealand Limited Strengthens Weather Watch

New Zealand’s National Meteorological Service ble or occurring. data is also used by road maintenance selects Vaisala to install fi rst dual polarization and aviation authorities, for example, to ensure safe road and air traffi c. weather radars in the country. MetService invited leading weather radar suppliers to partici- pate in a competitive tender process On the evening of 1 June 2010, tor- $12 million program of upgrades for the weather radar expansion rential rainfall caused fl ash-fl ooding and expansion to its weather radar project. Two factors tilted the in Whakatane, a city in New Zealand’s network in 2007. balance in Vaisala’s favor. Bay of Plenty. While this was well Firstly, MetService already used managed by local agencies, the event Valuable Information weather radar systems provided highlighted the challenge that New for by Sigmet Inc., a weather radar Zealand’s highly variable signal processor company that was poses to its residents, businesses acquired by Vaisala in 2006. Vaisala’s and tourists. By emitting pulses of microwaves strong expertise in weather radars For MetService, New Zealand’s and measuring the return, weather turned out to be the second crucial National Meteorological Service, the radars sense the location and factor. The MetService considered country’s rugged topography and intensity – and in some cases, geographical isolation make weather the velocity – of precipitation forecasting a diffi cult task. As part of echoes. This information is an initiative to provide warnings of highly valuable for weather localized, short-term severe weather, forecasting, particularly when MetService commenced a fi ve-year, severe weather is either possi-

10 185/2011 185/2011 11 Vaisala an innovative company with high quality weather equipment, and saw great benefits in choosing weather radars that would seam- lessly integrate with their existing data processing systems. Developed in collaboration with leading universities in the United States and Finland, Vaisala’s weather radars are designed to meet the most demanding requirements. Further- more, the offered dual polarization capability provides more detailed information on precipitation, distin- guishing between variations in pre- cipitation type and providing more accurate rainfall estimates.

More Detailed Information, More Accurate Warnings

The first Vaisala Weather Radar WRM200, the new dual polarization Optimized Dual Polarization Performance C-band magnetron Doppler weather radar, was installed in October 2009 Vaisala’s weather radar product family consists of a complete offering of on Mahia Peninsula, on the east Doppler C-band weather radars, signal and radar control processing tech- coast of New Zealand’s North Island. nology, and related software and services. The heart of the product family This filled a significant gap in MetSer- is the dual polarization capability, for which the whole line was originally vice’s radar network. developed. All hardware and software have been optimized to work as an The Mahia radar has a range of integrated system to provide the best possible data quality. 300 kilometers, enabling it to monitor Dual polarization technology ensures more detailed information on weather systems over the Pacific precipitation, distinguishing between variations in precipitation type and Ocean immediately to the east of providing more accurate rainfall estimates. the North Island, as well as over its eastern and central parts. MetService radar meteorologist Warning Service to most of Gisborne, Happy with their experiences with John Crouch says the dual polariza- Hawke’s Bay, Bay of Plenty, Taupo Vaisala, MetService has strengthened tion capability of the new radars has and Rotorua. All in all, the dual polar- the co-operation and signed an agree- provided forecasters with a lot more ization radars have proven valuable ment for weather radar installation information about weather systems, in enhancing data availability and in Westland in 2011 and another in particularly discrimination between quality. Northland in 2012. These are now liquid and frozen precipitation within New Zealand’s rugged terrain in the planning stage with one to be clouds, raindrop size, and super- makes servicing the equipment a dif- located in the far north of the North cooled water droplets that can cause ficult task, which means that the reli- Island and the other the west coast aircraft icing problems, leading to ability of the equipment is extremely of the South Island. better and more accurate warnings. important. The Vaisala WRM200 provides real-time remote motoring Further information: Operational Reliability and fault diagnostic capabilities, www.vaisala.com/en/ Above Expectations which has reduced the need for site /products/ visits thereby lowering maintenance weatherradars In 2010, a second Vaisala WRM200 costs. What’s more, the Mahia and was installed at Mamaku in the Bay Mamaku radars have performed of Plenty. Together with the Mahia nearly without a fault since their radar, this has enabled MetService installation. to extend its Severe Thunderstorm

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