Weather Dictionary / Glossary of Terms

Partial Beam Filling


   Weather TermDescription / Definition
   Partial Beam Filling A limitation of the rainfall estimation techniques used by NEXRAD. At far ranges from the radar, a storm may occupy only a portion of the radar beam (which may be several miles across). However, the radiation received by the radar antenna consists of the average reflectivity across the entire beam, so the reflectivity and associated rainfall rates are underestimated.


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Data courtesy of NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration