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CALCULATION OF RADAR SHEAR

METEOROLOGIST JEFF HABY

There are many different types of shear. When it comes to the use of the term shear on a Doppler radar product what is usually being referred to is the addition and inbound and outbound winds that are adjacent to each other. For example, if a radar meteorologist says there are 80 knots of shear it means the winds going toward the radar added to the winds going away from the radar on two adjacent radar range gates is 80 knots.

Another term that is used in radar meteorology is the rotational velocity. This is found by adding the inbound and outbound winds and dividing by 2. If the inbound velocity is 30 knots and the outbound velocity is 52 knots, then the rotational velocity will be 41 knots.