Plain English Meaning
A network of advanced ground-based weather radars across the United States. They send out radio pulses, listen for the echoes coming back from rain, snow, and hail, and use those echoes to map where precipitation is, how heavy it is, and how the air inside a storm is moving.
Full Definition
A nationwide network of high-power Doppler weather radars operated jointly by the National Weather Service, the FAA, and the Department of Defense. Each WSR-88D site transmits pulses of microwave energy and measures the energy reflected back from precipitation, allowing it to rainfall , storm structure, motion within storms, and weather features such as hail cores, mesocyclones, and . Outputs from the network are combined into the imagery pilots see in , on products, and in weather displays.