About Radar Loops

Introduction

Radar loops have up to 4 of the latest radar images. Images are normally produced every 10 minutes, so a typical loop of 4 images, 10 minutes apart, covers a 30 minute period. The oldest image in the loop is generally 40-50 minutes before the present time. However, if a radar has stopped producing images (due to Windfinding duties or breakdown), then images up to two hours old may be shown.

We recommend that you always check the timestamps on the bottom of the images to see the exact time each image was produced.

If left alone, Radar Loop pages will refresh themselves every 5 minutes, so that the loops will keep up to date.

Loops were improved February 2003

The Javascript program that runs the radar loops was improved in February 2003 to make the loops work in almost all brands of web browsers. Opera and Konqueror users should now be able to run loops.

Any problems with Loops ?

If you have any problems or questions about running radar loops in your browser, please look at
Radar Loops FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).
It may solve the problem, or if not, it will show you how to report your problem to us by using the FEEDBACK link.

Browser Settings: Set Page-checks to AUTOMATIC

Radar loops work best when your web browser has correct settings for checking web page timestamps.

Use settings like 'Automatic' if available. Read Browser Settings for details.

Basically, once the full loop has downloaded and has looped around a couple of times, there should be no further download activity, and the mouse should not show a flashing hour-glass image. If any of these symptoms still occur, recheck the above Browser Settings.

Printing

During the loops, if you want to print one of the images, first press the 'Stop' button, and then presss the '+' or '-' buttons to single step to show the desired image, and then press the browser Print button.

Unfortunately, in Netscape Navigator, printing a radar-loop page will not work properly (due to a side-effect of the looping mechanism). Only the frame prints out, and the image is blank. You can however go to the single latest (non-loop) radar image web page (e.g. by clicking '128km' etc), and print out that image.

Mouse pointer distances.

When the loops are running, the following browsers will also show on-ground distances when the mouse is moved over the image:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 4 and above
• Netscape Navigator version 4 only
• Opera version 5 and 6, but only when identifying as MSIE
• Opera version 7 and above, in Opera mode
• Konqueror, but only in MSIE mode

(Other versions of web browsers may be added later.)

Further Information

Interpreting Weather Watch Radar Images - We strongly recommend that you read this to better understand the information provided inside individual radar images.

Radar Loops FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions about radar loops and loop problems.

Radar Loop Diagnostics - To help solve loop problems.

Web Caches - To explain caches and help solve cache problems.

Browser settings for Web Caches - The desired settings for radar loops.

Javascript test - To check if Javascript works in this browser.

Simple loop test - To check if loops work in this browser.