Australia's weather radars

The majority of Australia's weather radars are operated by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), an executive agency of the Australian Government. The radar network is continually being upgraded with new technology such as doppler and dual polarisation to provide better now-casting. Doppler weather radars are able to detect the movement of precipitation, making it very useful in detecting damaging winds associated with precipitation, and determining if a thunderstorm has a rotating updraft, a key indicator of the presence of the most dangerous type of thunderstorm, a supercell.

The new dual polarisation radars give forecasters the ability to:

detect debris in the atmosphere, leading to more accurate tornado warnings;
distinguish between different precipitation types, leading to better estimations of hail size and severity;
better identify areas of heavy rainfall, leading to more accurate flood warnings; and
discern between precipitation and non-meteorological echoes such as chaff, birds, and insects.

The dual polarisation transition

The transition to polarimetric (dual-polarised) radars began in 2017 with the upgrade of 4 Meteor 1500 radars located in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Sydney. The network has further been enhanced through the installation of 8 new polarimetric Meteor 735 radars across WA, NSW & Victoria, and two polarimetric WRM200 radars manufactured by Vaisala, one to replace the radar in Dampier, WA which had been destroyed by severe tropical cyclone Damien in 2020, and one to replace an ageing radar near Gove in the Northern Territory. Nine new Meteor 1700s were also installed between 2021 and 2024, 7 located in Qld, and 2 in WA, all equipped with dual polarisation technology. All the radars with the model name 'Meteor' were manufactured by Selex ES, now Leonardo.

Specifications are available for the Meteor 735, Meteor 1700, and the Vaisala WRM200.

Future radar network upgrades

The BoM has plans to:

build a new radar in Tennant Creek
build a new radar in SW Western Australia in the Manjimup-Pemberton region
build a new radar in SW Queensland in the Quilpie region
upgrade the Grafton Radar in the next 5-10 years to a dual-polarising doppler radar

Australian Capital Territory

The Australian Capital Territory is served by the Captains Flat radar, located in New South Wales.

New South Wales

Northern Territory

Queensland

South Australia

Tasmania

Victoria

Western Australia

Research Radars

Note:

Whilst the BoM may/may not own these radars, they are often involved with the radars for research applications.