THE Marburg Weather Radar has now been replaced with dual polarised Doppler radar technology, to enable real time rainfall and wind condition monitoring across large areas.

The Marburg radar facility is located on the Little Liverpool Range between Marburg and Rosewood and is one part of a weather observation network of more than 11,000 ‘pieces’ including satellites, upper atmosphere monitoring, automatic weather stations, ocean buoys and flood warning networks.

Upgrades began on the radar in April this year.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Dr Peter Stone has advised that the Marburg weather radar would now provide better image resolution, better visibility of weather systems and less image interference.

“It will also improve the image resolution between rain and hail, and it will show higher quality images during intense rain and storms.

“At the Bureau, we use radars to monitor storm movement, storm severity and to issue severe storm warnings.

“Therefore, improvements to radars, especially in areas susceptible to severe storms like South East Queensland assist us to keep the public and emergency services personal informed.

“Radars enable industry to make better decisions when preparing for severe weather, and they help farming businesses make timely decisions which include movement of stock, chemical and fertiliser application, and sowing and harvesting accuracy throughout the year.”