You may have noticed that I have been absent from WUWT for a few days. The stories have been on scheduled automated posting, and the WUWT team of moderators has held down the fort (thank you).
The reason is that I have been traveling on business. While I was traveling I was invited to photograph the weather station at what I think is probably the most visually stunning and technologically advanced meteorology center in the world today:
Can you guess what city and country this is in?
Hints below.
The building in the background has a Doppler radar on top, and is the meteorology HQ for the city. The entire building is just for meteorology and they employ 150 people. The Stevenson Screen in the foreground is where the official temperature record for the city is measured.
Hint: The city is not in the USA, NOAA has nothing like this.
I’ll have a complete report in a few days.
WUWT contributions made this portion of my trip possible, so I owe all of you a big thank you. More to come. – Anthony
UPDATE: well, that was fast. I’ll have more on this in a few days.
| WeatherMan |
Submitted on 2009/05/25 at 5:05pm
It’s the Shenzhen Meteorological Observatory in China.
REPLY: YES, WE HAVE A WINNER |
Congrats to “weatherman”! If anyone wants to locate it on Google Earth, and post URL here or lat/lon, it would save me a lot of trouble. I couldn’t take my GPS with me due to concerns at being at a gov installation with one might get me in trouble. Gotta catch a plane, back online in a day or so. – Anthony
Frankfurt, Germany.
Shanghai
hong kong?
Taipei, Taiwan?
South Korea or Taiwan?
Is this NEMI in South Korea?
Beijing. Close to the fourth ring road
Kuala Lumpur
I cheated.
At my last job we had a supplier in Guangdong province in China. Saw plenty of photos from post-visit reports – for the city, try Shenzhen.
REPLY: right, but too late, you came in second. OK gotta catch a plane, back online in a day or so – Anthony
Just a wild guess, but I wonder if it’s in the Caribbean…perhaps the Cayman Islands empire in the background?????
Looks like it might be on a roof; what might be a roof edge is visible and the surrounding structures have the utilitarian appearance which often exists on unoccupied rooftops. But the same utilitarian appearance is shared by industrial and scientific equipment, so it might simply be due being in a scientific facility. Is there a cooking grille nearby?
Could it be Beijing?
REPLY: could be, but not quite. getting warmer
Is it getting warmer due to increased CO2, urban heat island, or smog?
I’m too slow, China was an easy guess for me.
It is Dubai.
Anthony, how did you determine specifically it is a ‘Doppler’ (meteorological) RADAR?
There is no indication from the exterior, and not all RADARs in service for meteorological purposes need be ‘doppler’ in nature (although it is a safe bet in this day and age.)
The proper term, if I may, is “meteorological RADAR”, with the modifier ‘Doppler’ if so designed. Popular slang has shortened that to simply ‘Doppler RADAR’, but that doesn’t make it proper or necessarily correct in for cases.
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REPLY: Quite simple, I asked my host, who is a meteorologist there. She and her associate both said that the DOPPLER RADAR had been built in China, using a combination of licensed technology from the USA, and Chinese construction of the radome. I also saw the radar display on LCD screens in the lobby. – Anthony
Little can be found on the technical details of this RADAR, but what I have found (in references to software updates for our (US) network of met. RADARS ) is that it may be a WSR-88D design RADAR.
At any rate, at this link below there may be found an assortment of pictures of the “Shenzhen Meteoralogic Tower” as this webpage puts it:
http://www.citymark.aecom.com/EN/Project_View.asp?PID=12&CID=22&ID=87
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It is located at N 22° 32.505 E 114° 0.329.
I hate to elaborate on this subject all this, but, suffer me this one last post and I’m done!
I found the Rosetta stone here: www2.inmh.ro/uploads/wsr98d.pdf
To wit:
Link to articles about Shenzen and you’ll note that they are seeding clouds there to induce rainfall….hmmmm
@rickM (19:22:29) :
It shouldn’t be necessary at the moment – it’s been raining since the weekend.
too easy, its dubai
Gotta catch a plane, back online in a day or so. –
Anthony Watts in Around the World in Eighty Days
O/T
did you see this http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124286145192740987.html
That ‘weather radar’ seems to be an enormous technology transfer. Surely their military technicians will have taken a copy and been all over it?
Hold down the fort is a common American English phrase – comes from Western movies, usually some poor soul is holding down the fort by themselves when the Indians attack.
In everyday idiom it refers to taking care of a place or project while someone else is away – like the moderators taking care of our WUWT while Anthony was away.