Expert weighs in on proposed Doppler tower
Being a senior forecaster for the National Weather Service has given Mike Rapsik a birds-eye view of weather radar towers, just like the 110-foot tower being proposed on Pine Island.
“I was working the radar when Charley came ashore and I was working the radar when Irma clobbered the Keys,” said Rapsik.
He explained that at the top of the tower there is a dome and within the dome is a parabolic dish with an antenna in the center. The radar rapidly and continuously transmits a pulse and then listens for an echo. The radar beam, he said, is not unlike a pencil. The energy being emitted from the beam however, does not simply stay within the beam.
“There’s energy called side lobes,” said Rapsik. “This energy goes in different directions … it’s just the nature of microwave energy.”
The dish within the dome rotates at 360 degrees, sampling sections of the atmosphere, before rising a degree and a half to take another sample and so on.
It is Rapsik’s contention that the claim of unmonitored terrain is simply untrue, a statement he also made at a recent meeting of the Greater Pine Island Civic Association.
“When the National Weather Service upgraded to the radar network that is in place now — prior to that they had World War II technology — what we have now is an 88D radar (1988 Doppler). The United States government said we are going to cover every square inch of this nation.”
Since the radar beam emitted by the tower can only travel upward to 19 degrees, Rapsik said, the closer the radar is to any physical entity the less it can see, creating something called a cone of silence to the surrounding area. Therefore, we have more than adequate coverage from Tampa, Rapsik said.
If a radar was necessary at all, he said, he would elect that it go somewhere between the east side of Cape Coral and LaBelle.
Another issue regarding the tower for Rapsik is the question of who will be manning the radar site.
“Is this going to be for the 5 o’clock news?” Rapsik said. “Is it going to be sitting there transmitting with no one who has access to this information?”
He wonders who will be operating the radar if it is privately owned.
“All the weather information from the National Weather Service network from coast to coast is free to access,” said Rapsik. “It’s already paid for by your and my tax dollars.”