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The Radar Pull-Down Menu, shown in Exhibit 2.1.6.11-1, allows users to access the national 10km Radar Coded Message product, mosaic products, dial radar products, and radar applications. In addition, using the Home/88D Tool, you can view a variety of radar products from any NEXRAD radar on the CONUS scale.

Exhibit 2.1.6.11-1. The Radar Pull-Down Menu

* 10km Radar Coded Message: This mosaic is derived from the reflectivity information in Radar Coded Messages (RCM). The mosaic is created centrally and disseminated via the SBN at approximately 00:10 and 00:40 each hour. The reflectivity fields have been given automated quality control to identify and remove echo features due to nonprecipitation targets, chiefly migrating birds, aircraft, and insects. However, some small nonprecipitation features may pass all quality-control checks, especially when they are located underneath cold, dense clouds or near actual precipitation. True precipitation features are only rarely removed. Boxes within the mosaic grid that are more than 230 km from the nearest reporting radar are given a special reflectivity code and can be displayed in a unique color. * Home/88D: This menu option allows you to display doppler radar data from nearly any NWS NEXRAD 88D Radar. Now that these data are available on the SBN, it is possible to view these data without having to change your localization, or use dial-in access. Once you load the Home/88D Tool, and made it editable, you can drag the Home Location to any 88D location on the CONUS scale. From the Home Cascading Menu, choose from the available radar products. * Home: This cascading menu contains a fairly comprehensive list of doppler radar products which can be displayed from any NEXRAD 88D Radar. These products are used in conjunction with the Home/88D Tool, described above. Use the Data Scale option (see Section 2.1.6.3) to display the home radar on its native scale. * Mosaic: Mosaics available via this menu use data from up to nine nearby radars. Additional optional mosaics on cascading menus provide a limited list of radar products from a predefined set of NEXRAD 88D Radars within a given region. You can set up such mosaics by creating a mosaicInfo.txt table in your customFiles directory. * Dial Radars: The list of Dial Radars in this menu is set up as part of your localization process. A comprehensive menu of radar products is available for each Dial Radar. * Applications:The Radar Applications are discussed in detail in Chapter 7 Radar Applications.

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