Weather Radar seeing Marine ships

[VK2KRR]

As was brought to my attention by Jim VK3ZYC, the Bairnsdale weather radar appears to be seeing ships out at sea this evening.
Thanks for that observation Jim! Im just posting this image up to show you the comparison with Marine Traffic .com map.

VK3ZYC Radar Observation

I have highlighted with red circles on each map, obvious correlations between the two maps.
And as Jim points out the rain radars are about 5.5 GHz and seeing ships about 300 Km at present.
So im guessing it could be a good idea to check for radar returns from even further afield as conditions improve! another item to keep an eye on when conditions are good.

[VK3AIF]

FYI

From the BOM website, Bairnsdale radar to be precise:-http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/radar/i ... info.shtml

"Occasionally, particularly when it is cool, ships can produce radar echoes, which often appear as small areas of high intensity rainfall. Because the ships are moving, they can not be automatically removed by the permanent echo filter."

[VK2GOM]

Same here; I often see radar echoes of ships.

One unusual one picked up recently (can't remember precisely where) was a huge swarm of flying insects. It was mentioned on the various weather pages.

73 - Rob VK2GOM / GW0MOH

[VK3HJ]

The rain radar sometimes also shows large bushfires as "rain" echoes.
Luke VK3HJ

[VK2TS]

Quite often in Summer but not always in summer, Ghost echos can also indicate tropospheric ducts. lets hope they don't screen them with filters.

Cheers

VK2TS

[VK3AIF]

Looks like ships showing up on the Bairnsdale weather radar right now http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR682.loop.shtml#skip

[VK3DXE]

Certainly appears to be ships the way it's moving west vs. the weather systems moving east.

Ducts quite often show up as widespread "low intensity rainfall".

During the Black Saturday fires, we were sitting at home listening to various ES comms, watching the mercury rise and rise and rise and then were able to watch the fires get bigger and bigger as the day progressed. Surprising how long before the media cottoned on to how big it was.