Comments on: Radio Static Used as Weather Warning

By: Nathan Davis

Nathan Davis — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:47:23 +0000

A couple of meteorologists have setup feedback listening devices measuring how much static cellphones get. It works to create an incredibly detailed map of rain fall levels since the rain plays havoc with signals.

By: MaggieL

MaggieL — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:33:33 +0000

Not too many, I’d imagine. Solar activity influences terrestrial radio mainly by mucking about with the reflecting layers in the ionosphere. Significant “atmospherics” (which radio amateurs call “QRN”) are usually ground-wave phenomena.

I get double nerd points for being both a private pilot and a ham.

By: Village Idiot

Village Idiot — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:37:25 +0000

I wonder how many false alarms were generated by solar flares?

By: MaggieL

MaggieL — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:54:02 +0000

There have been “Stormscope” and “Strikefinder” devices available for aviation use for many years. They are lighter and consume less power than airborne weather radar, but still provide useful information.

More recently, lightning strike information from RF sensors is combined with GPS navigation and radar data (from either airborne or ground-based radars via data link) on integrated flight data displays.

By: Blurgle

Blurgle — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 19:29:22 +0000

It actually worked very well in predicting cumulonimbus activity. You can do the same thing today with a series of shortwave radios and antennas.

Aviators need to know specifically where cumulonimbus activity exists so they can avoid these dangerous clouds. (Most rainclouds are not CBs and don’t cause much convective activity above a certain level, so they’re not nearly as hazardous.) CB clouds cause more static than almost anything else in existence, and certainly more than anything else that would have existed in 1924, so using static to predict where CB activity is could save lives.