Strange 'S'-shaped radar phenomenon appears off WA coast

HERE IT IS NOW!!!!

www.weatherzone.com.au...

reply to post by CaptainBeno

Yep. There it is.
The judges scores are coming in....
Its a 99 for chaff!
Yea!

iT'S BACK!!!!!!!

reply to post by Phage


Thank God you actually saw it! I was just scanning and POw! Cheers Buddy!

reply to post by CaptainBeno

Next up, from the RAAF: "Yeah. It was us."

another stupid question... how come it looks different to this from the opening post?

link

reply to post by Phage


I normally fly up and down the coast quite regularly, they don't normally "practice" just there. We have demarcated areas for that just north of Perth. This is odd. In 16 Year of flying here I have never ever seen this, and I normally check the weather every day.....inc military flights etc.

I suppose it could be Chaff Phage? But seriously, not in that area? I know the areas really well.

reply to post by taoistguy


this is happening now that's why

reply to post by CaptainBeno


so you're saying the link i posted is time-specific?

reply to post by taoistguy


Un yeah kinda?

Here is the link bud

www.weatherzone.com.au...

reply to post by Phage


Just check the area weather and NOTAM. No military jet activity anywhere near that area. ??????

reply to post by CaptainBeno


right. thanks. i'm not used to this kind of tech stuff.

And................. here is the BOM site link

Looks slightly different on here....but it's there.


www.bom.gov.au...

reply to post by CaptainBeno

I'm not sure a NOTAM would be issued. I don't think there's a lot of traffic out there.
I wonder what the timing is like between yesterday's display and this one. Same time of day?

reply to post by Phage


Hmmm I'm not sure? I thought It was around 15:30 WST (Aust). Just a rough guess though.

But this time of year here the mornings are clear and the cloud builds towards the arvo?

Odd clouds though huh? And similar ones two times in a row in the same place? Hmmmmm?

reply to post by CaptainBeno

The thing is, clouds don't show on radar.

reply to post by Phage


The oddest thing though, is that it's still there!

Wouldn't chaff hang around for a few minutes, disperse and then no signal detected? This is still there? I.e on the live radar scan

www.weatherzone.com.au...

reply to post by Phage


Sorry yeah, you're right......more "cells" of activity and rain. So is a wiggly rain trail?? (Joke)

reply to post by CaptainBeno

I see it disappearing.
Think of it this way: The radar is scanning an upward angle from the station. At a given distance it's hitting a given altitude. That works fine for detecting precipitation because rain falls from the clouds to the surface. You don't care how high the rain is, just that it's falling out of the cloud.

Now, we have a "layer" of chaff that is descending below the scan angle. As it does so it disappears from the scan.

Make sense?

So is a wiggly rain trail?? (Joke)

Actually, yes. A "squirt" of wiggly rain.