Operational Examples

I grew up with radar manuals that talked about scallops, commas, hooks, and the like and spent most of my radar-using career looking for scallops, hooks, commas and the like. I don't think it did much good. The concept of looking for shadows makes a lot of sense and Honeywell Training Course provides

Weather Examples

Stratus Rain is normally no higher than 15,000 feet and can spread for hundreds of miles; it is not particularly dangerous.

Airborne radar cannot differentiate between light rain and the ground when at high altitude looking down. The reflectivity of the ground, especially if it is wet, greatly exceeds the water droplets. Once the aircraft has descended and is looking up at the rain, the problem goes away.

Stratus rain

Stratus rain summary

Ordinary Thunderstorm

The highest concentration of rain and rain-covered hail is in what meteorologists call the "bright band," typically located between 8,000 and 17,000 feet. This area offers the highest reflectivity, where the most information to radar is available. The beam must be pointed into this area to properly evaluate the storm's danger.

Thunderstorm

Super-cell Thunderstorm

A Super-Cell Thunderstorm is much wider than an ordinary thunderstorm and can often be identified by the radar shadow it creates. (The green arc above is ground clutter, but this ground clutter doesn't show behind the super-cell thunderstorm which obscures all radar returns from behind.)