Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with radar

Weather software for the Mac?

nitsuj — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:06:10 -0800

Is there any weather software for the Mac that is comparable to GRLevel3 on Windows? I'm looking for some good software for viewing live radar data in the U.S. (NEXRAD?) Most of the software seems to be for Windows only. Ideally I'd like for it to be out of the browser and offer a higher level of control than typically offered by web-based radars.

Thanks!

Fight a speeding ticket on the grounds of inaccurate radar?

kraigory — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:32:35 -0800

I got a speeding ticket, but there was a car next to me that was speeding, while I was not. What is the likelihood that I can argue this in court? Here are the details:

I was traveling south on a road with two lanes going each direction, and a turn lane in the middle. It was about 1am, so late at night, and it was dark. I was in the left lane, and a crazy teenager was in the right lane next to me, passing me on the right, playing super loud music with his subwoofers turned up.

The police officer was sitting on the other side of the road, facing north. As I came around a turn, about 100 yards from him, and entered a downhill straightaway towards him. He turned on his headlights rather quickly, and pulled in behind us. There was also one car behind the speeding car to my right.

The car on my right was in the process of passing me when the officer clocked me. I would like to contend that he could've clocked the car next to me instead of my car.

Also, the officer could have been tired, as when he brought me the ticket, he said "I'm only going to get you for the speeding, not your license." I gave him a questioning look, and he looked at my license, and said "Oh... you're 19... not 18... nevermind." I asked him what the problem was, and he said "Nothing... I'm just loosing my mind." I assume he was going to fine me for being out past curfew as well, although I didn't think there was a curfew for 18 year olds.

Additionally, I cannot make the assigned court date, as I will be in college. I think it won't be very hard to delay the court date at least 6mo or so, maybe more. By then, the officer may not remember the situation as clearly.

What do you think my chances are in court? What arguments will he use against me, in order to prove that it was indeed me that was speeding? And, how can I combat these arguments?

Thanks!

PowerDoppler 17 comin' atcha LIVE!

zsazsa — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 17:03:59 -0800

Why does it seem like every local TV station has their own radar (usually with a ridiculously flashy name like MegaDoppler 3000)? Is it just for bragging rights or are they actually better/faster than the National Weather Service's radar? One would hope/think that a governmental institution charged with keeping citizens safe would have equipment as good or better than a second-rate local TV station in a 100th-ranked media market.

Some things I've noticed, none of which really convince me that local stations need their own radar equipment:
- When I lived in semi-rural Missouri, a local station actually advertised that their radar dome was larger than the other stations', but their forecasts and the onscreen radar didn't look any better.
- I've also seen some stations advertising "high-def radar" but the images just seem like very zoomed-in, interpolated versions of the radar resolution I'm used to seeing.
- CBS 5 here in the Bay Area advertises that their radar is live, and that the other stations show radar data that is up to two minutes old. Is it because the other stations are actually using NWS radar instead?

Yeah, what you have right here is your classic kangaroo court.

joshrholloway — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:37:04 -0800

Multiple requests for dismissal in a trial I just took part in were denied, even though they seemed to be extremely basic and logical. Do I have any recourse? I received a speeding ticket in November for traveling 36 miles per hour in a 20 mile per hour speed zone. The area this ticket was given in has extremely exorbitant fines and I don't believe I am guilty of this crime.

I examined case laws and how court proceedings should go in these instances, and I thought I was extremely well-prepared for this case. I went in for my trial this evening and I felt that the "impartial" judge had a blatant disregard for the law and legal precedent.

The first sign of trouble came when I pointed out to the judge that there was no prosecutor present and asked him if he would be serving as prosecutor. Of course, based on the US Constitution, a judge cannot act as both a prosecutor and a trier of facts in the same trial. He said that no, he was not acting as prosecutor, but that the police officer who issued my citation was. I immediately asked for dismissal based on the fact that the officer could not be prosecutor and witness in the same trial because she would be questioning herself. From everything I read before the trial, this is a very obvious and standard legal precedent that any judge should agree with. He denied my request for dismissal without any reason, and because I had chosen not to testify, he said I could not speak other than to cross-examine the officer.

I was puzzled, but I moved on, hopeful, because I had prepared a layered defense. After the officer gave her testimony, it was clear that she did not recall me personally from any sort of independent recollection, as she had to refer to her notes for details, and she completely overlooked a rather memorable incident that occurred at the same time of the citation. I pointed this out and asked for dismissal based on lack of independent recollection. Again, I was denied without reason.

I should also say that this officer seemed completely clueless about radar, and she had no idea that they had to be calibrated at all. She did not even know what audio Doppler was. After I grilled her, she claimed in her testimony that the self-test when the radar was turned on was enough to calibrate it. Even knowing that the self-test only checks circuitry and not accuracy, I could not make any statement to this effect because I was not giving testimony.

Again I trudged on. All the case law I had read claimed that it was an widely-recognized precedent that radar units must be tested with external means (tuning fork, frequency beat oscillator, etc.) before and immediately following a reading in order to be considered accurate to a legal degree of certainty. The officer had already stated that evening that the radar units were only tested internally, and only at the beginning of the day. I asked her this again and she again confirmed this fact. She also could not produce evidence after questioning that the radar units were calibrated at all. Again I asked for dismissal, this time based on a complete lack of evidence. Once again, denied by the judge.

After this I was starting to get the idea that this judge really didn't want to hear what I had to say and instead was going to say whatever it took for me to pay this fine. I gave a rather well-thought-out (I thought so, anyway) closing argument, hoping that this would finally sway him. Without much in the way of explanation, he found me guilty. He asked if I wanted to take traffic school and I told him no, that I would be appealing his ruling.

I'm in Tennessee. This ruling was made in a very, very small town, in what I can now see was a classic kangaroo court. I feel that I accurately presented my case, and I feel that the legal precedents and even the Constitution was ignored in my case. Heck, after I left the courtroom, two police officers advised me to appeal because they said I had an "excellent cross-examination."

So, short of taking this thing to an appeal trial, which will likely cost more than just paying the fine, do I have any routes of legal action to take considering this judge outright ignored the law? I mean, when I had two police officers, one of which who said he was in charge of radar for this town, tell me my case was good, what can you say? I know most of you aren't lawyers, but is there something else I should know here about what my recourse is? If I do appeal this and post the bond on my warrant, do I get that back after the trial? What can I do here?

Why are there still lighthouses?

beagle — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 08:40:48 -0800

In this day and age of ubiquitous GPS, why are lighhouses and foghorns still operating? It's cheap, easy, and good operating procedure to carry a GPS device even on a cabin cruiser or sailboat. Larger ships have radar, as well, as a navigational aid. Clearly lighthouses and fog horns are today just backup systems to the electronic tools, and they're rather limited in their effectiveness. Does anyone have an insight into whether lighthouses and foghorns are still considered essential systems? Is any consideration being given to phasing them out completely?

In search of free online tool for creating radial graphs!

cortex — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:47:20 -0800

Are there any free online tools for generating radar (aka radial, spider, star) graphs/charts? The ideal tool would be easy to use dynamically and/or against large sets of data to generate multiple graphs.

I know that Google Documents, for example, provides a lot of graph/chart options, but not this specific sort. On the other end, I'm solid with perl and aware of e.g. radial.pm, but I'd love to find a slick, existing start-to-finish tool rather than having to roll some or all of it myself.

Any ideas?

MEEP! MEEP!

tdischino — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 14:24:57 -0800

What's the likelihood I will get a speeding ticket? Leaving Georgetown late last Friday night in a rental car, I came upon a police car parked on the side of the road. I wasn't sure if I was speeding at the time, regardless I didn't have much time to react if I was. I decided it was too late to hit the brakes any way if I was (not to mention I've heard hitting the brakes in an open thoroughfare is tantamount to admission of guilt). As I passed the car and was maybe about 50-100 feet ahead of it, a bright light flashed from the top of the police car. He didn't pull out to follow me.

In the next few seconds, my passenger advised me that I had been in a 35 zone. I looked down and was decelerating in the high 30s, so I estimate in the time that had passed and since I had taken my foot off the gas, I was going about 43 (just a guess) when the light flashed.

Although I've not heard of them or seen them, I speculated to my passenger that the flash was probably a car mounted radar-triggered camera recording the license plate. Was I correct? If so, are these commonly used in D.C. area? Any where else?

Considering that I was out of state (I'm a west coasty) and in a rental, what's the likelihood they will send me a ticket? Or is this a scare tactic only?

radar tsunami relief article?

kittyprecious — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:20:07 -0800

Before it went under (the second time), Radar magazine published a story about the relief workers in the area affected by the 2004 tsunami. (I think it was published in late 2005/early 2006.) Is it available online anywhere? I can't find it on radaronline.com or via Google.

'Cause the rear-view ain't doin' it for me.

Netzapper — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 17:12:12 -0800

I want automotive radar in my Subaru. Where can I buy such a unit from somebody as a turn-key (I want programming interfaces, too)? Failing that, where do I get a narrow-band phased-array radar-frequency beamformer module?

Plans for an offshore air defense platform?

clockworkjoe — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 15:51:15 -0800

I'm interested in writing a story set on a texas tower, an off-shore air defense platform used in the mid 50s to early 60s. However, I need an idea of how it was set up inside and I don't know how to get a map/plan/schematic of the tower. I don't every little detail about it, just how the space was set up and so forth.

Mathematicians: Help me stick it (back) to The Man

thefinned1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 09:29:12 -0800

Mathematicians: Help me stick it (back) to The Man: Is 1.75 miles enough for a vehicle that started off moving slower than the rest of traffic to build up speed, pace a car and accurately determine its speed? Picture this:
Two Cars. One (me) driving at 70-75 MPH in the number one lane on a four lane freeway; the other (cop) just merging onto the freeway from an on ramp, probably going between 45-60 MPH, working his way up to 65. Weather is clear, freeway is mostly empty.

Within 1.5 to 1.75 miles the cop pulled me over for passing him.

How mathematically does this work?

Is 1.75 miles enough for a vehicle that started off moving slower than the rest of traffic to build up speed, pace a car and accurately determine its speed?

It seems to me that he would have had to travel at an incredible speed to catch up to a car that was moving from 15 to 20 MPH faster than him, and even if he did does the speed he caught up to me at count for anything?

How fast would he have to go to catch up to me?
How far would he have to travel to accurately gauge my speed via pacing?

There has got to be some sort of math behind this that I can use in my defense but I suck at math. Please help.

(Please no lectures on how I should just pay the ticket and go to traffic school.)

(Furthermore, to help understand why I am fighting a ticket in this manner:

There is no mention of Radar on my citation, so if the officer claims to have me on Radar I can use the defense that there is no way to determine the accuracy of his Radar equipment since he did not write in his Radar information (ID number or what ever).

Also the officer did not write in his Patrol Vehicle unit number on my citation, without which there is no way to verify the accuracy of his speedometer, and no way to accurately gauge my speed as a result.)

Suggestions on good weather radar software?

nitsuj — Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:32:36 -0800

I'm unhappy with my current choices in web-based weather radar technology. I used Weather.com's radar until I discovered the much more robust and clear Intellicast. Can I get something better? Ideally, I'd like to have a website or piece of software that gives me live, up-to-date views of my local radar without having to wait 30 minutes for an update. Something like the local news has, with the ability to zoom in on areas of interest and follow storms as they move through my area (Missouri, if it matters) in real time.

I know the technology exists, but is it available to consumers? What do professional meteorologists and storm trackers use at home?