The National Weather Service office here in Nashville along with many others across the country have upgraded the resolution of their radar data today. This means more accurate warnings and forecasts when using radar, because forecasters will have a better idea of what is going on in the atmosphere.
Currently only Base Reflectivity and Base Velocity in the lowest tilt have been upgraded. The NWS will be doing these upgrades in phases, until by the end of the year every tilt is included and the legacy products will stop being sent. Base Reflectivity has increased from 4-bit data to 8-bit data, but the pixel sizes have remained the same. That means that there is higher res data just within the same area of measurement. Base Velocity, however, has greatly reduced from 1km pixels to 250m or 275m (cant remember) pixel sizes, allowing for smaller, more accurate velocity measurements. Here are a few examples below…
Base Reflectivity: (click for larger image)
(Legacy BR: Unsmoothed)
(High-Res BR: Unsmoothed)
Unfortunately I do not have an example of the Base Velocity, but you can take my word for it that it is a much better resolution!
If you have GRlevel3, you need to go to the GRlevelx owner forums and download the v1.71 update to view Southern region data.
