Radar Map Features
Radar Map Layers
The radar viewer allows for viewing of 4 image loops of 128 km radius, 256 km radius and 512 km radius radar images for most of the Bureau's radars. In addition, the Adelaide (Buckland Park), Brisbane (Mt Stapylton) and Melbourne radars allow for viewing of 64 km radius views, with the Brisbane and Melbourne radars producing 6 image loops.
The visibility of map details, including current weather observations, weather forecast districts, roads, railways, lakes and major rivers, river catchments and nearby radars (where available) can be optionally selected during radar loops to help better reference the information displayed.
Example of a frame from a 256 km radar loop.
There are three layers displayed by default when the radar map is opened:
range, topography and locations.
Radar map display options.
The layers displayed may be varied by checking or unchecking the boxes listed under the radar map. To quickly display all the layers, click the "select all" button. To quickly clear the displayed layers, click the "clear all" button.
Click here for more information
about the weather observations layer
National and 512 km Mosaic
The 512 km mosaic image is centred on the capital city radar and is composed of data from nearby radars in addition to data from the capital city radar. An example from Adelaide is show below. Radars contributing to this mosaic are: Adelaide (Buckland Park), Adelaide (Sellicks Hill), Mt Gambier, Mildura and Woomera.
Note that rainfall images will appear and disappear when the part-time windfinding radars go into windfind mode. Click here for more information about the windfinding radars, including the routine windfind time periods.
Example of the 512 km mosaic for Adelaide.
The national radar mosaic, shown below, is composed of data from all available radars in the Bureau's network. The number of radars contributing to the mosaic is indicated in the bottom right hand corner of the image.
Example of the national radar mosaic.
The hourly satellite image can be optionally selected as an additional layer on the national radar mosaic, as shown below. The date and time of the satellite image is indicated in white text. The date and time for both the radar and the satellite images are shown in UTC time. Click here to find out more about UTC time and how to convert to your local time.
Example of the national radar mosaic with the satellite image layer selected.
Nearby Radars
There are two methods for navigating to nearby radars. The directional navigational buttons, shown below, can be used to navigate to a nearby radar in any direction.
Links to navigate to nearby radars
The "nearby radars" map layer, when selected, displays icons representing the location and type (Doppler, dedicated weather watch, windfinding) of the nearby radars, as shown below.
Radars in the vicinity of Marburg radar, indicated by radar type.
The icons are as follows:
Doppler radar
Dedicated
weather watch radar
Windfinding
radar
Place Names and Topography
Place names were chosen to assist in relating areas of rain to landmarks, and not because of the size of a town. In some cases where there are two places close to one another, one name is placed on the 128 km range map and the other on the 256 km range.
The topographic scale is shown on the maps with the following colour scale:
Topographic colours
Longitude and Latitude
During radar loops, if you move your mouse over the radar map, the boxes on the right hand side show the latitude and longitude of the on-ground position of the mouse pointer. In the following example, the mouse is centered on the Grafton radar.
Example of a longitude and latitude data.
Also displayed is distances from the current origin, which is usually the centre of the map. You can set a new origin by clicking your desired point on the map.
Date and Time Stamps
The local date and time at the radar is displayed above the radar controls, as shown below.
Example of the local time display.
At the bottom of the image, the location of the radar, date, time and the maximum radar range (e.g. 64 km, 128 km, 256 km or 512 km) are listed. The date and time stamp on the image are displayed in "UTC" (Coordinated Universal Time), which is the same as "GMT" (Greenwich Mean Time). The equivalent EST, CST and WST time zones are indicated below the image. During Daylight Saving EDT and CDT are also shown.