Design and manufacture of atmospheric radar systems

ATRAD has won a contract to supply Vaisala Meteorological Systems Inc. with a VHF Transmitter and Antenna Array plus other components as part of a Tropospheric Wind Profiler System for the UK Met Office.

The transmitter design uses the same 100kW-tube transmitter technology already in use by the Communication Research Laboratory in Wakkanai Japan, the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at Kuehlungsborn University of Rostock in Germany, and soon to be installed at the Woomera rocket range for the Japanese National Aeronautics Laboratory.

The contract includes supply, integration, installation and on site training at the radar location on one of the Hebrides Islands off the North West Coast of Scotland.

Vaisala holds the head contract with the UK Met Office and will project manage the contract and Vaisala will be also providing the Data Acquisition and Display Analysis software for the radar system. Systems integration will occur at ATRAD's Buckland Park test facility before shipment to the UK.

The commissioning of this new Tropospheric profiler will enable the UK Met Office to close its Stornoway Upper Air Balloon Station and heralds a new age in meteorological remote sensing.