Space Technology

By: Soniya
Radars are used in meteorology for determining location and intensity of the precipitation and performing wind measurement.  Radar imaging equipment detects hail storms and hurricanes. You cannot imagine the state-of-the-art weather surveillance tools that are used only for accumulating information.  Frame grabbers connected to live weather radars capture the output VGA signal from the weather radar receiver. The frame grabber transfers the VGA signal from the radar imaging equipment to the computer.

 Main advantages of radar imaging

Initially radars could only detect the object's presence, motion and position. Unlike common radars the weather radar imaging devices allow for creating an object's picture. This ability is effectively applied in weather forecasting. Pulse radars based on the Doppler effect are likely the most applied imaging radar type in weather forecasting.

 Pulse-Doppler systems of radars

The Doppler effect applied in pulse-Doppler radar systems makes possible determining the relative velocity of different objects.  Such systems applied in weather forecasting detect target location and measure radial velocity of the target. Doppler radar images track the rain droplets movement and perform analysis of the precipitation intensity. This equipment provides authentic forecast information about sea surface temperature, wave heights, surface pressure, etc.

  Frame grabbers and radar imaging

Weather radar imaging equipmentcan perform multiple measurements. Very often it is extremely important to save data from live weather radars to the computer with the appropriate software for future analysis, processing and archiving. VGA2USB allows for connection of a weather surveillance radar to a computer. Unlike the Imagenation and Matrox frame grabber lines, VGA2USB provides capturing of VGA signal. The VGA-Masterframe grabber cardby PixelSmart that also captures VGA signal is not available as an external solution and therefore needs installation.

  Video signal capturing

 Weather pulse radar systems are capable of detecting the motion of rains, clouds, and storms. The received information flow from the systems displays dynamics of the precipitation movement.  An American scientific organization that provides climate, hydrologic, weather forecasts has chosen VGA2USB for capturing VGA stream from weather radar imaging equipment and synchronizing it with radio transmissions.